Televisión Independiente de México (; known on air as TIM or Cadena TIM) was a
Mexican national television network founded in 1965 by
Eugenio Garza Sada
Eugenio Garza Sada (January 11, 1892 – September 17, 1973) was an industrialist in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, best known for founding the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) school system in the country. Gar ...
. It operated until 1973, when it merged with its primary competitor,
Telesistema Mexicano
Telesistema Mexicano was the predecessor of Televisa. Telesistema Mexicano was a television alliance made up of the independently owned television flagship stations XEW-TV, XEW Canal 2, XHTV-TV, XHTV Canal 4, and XHGC-TV, XHGC Canal 5 in Mexico, D ...
, owned by
Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta
Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895 – 23 September 1972) was a Mexican businessman, known for founding the entertainment conglomerate Telesistema Mexicano (now Televisa).
Early life
Azcárraga was born on 2 March 1895 in Tampico, Ta ...
, to form the
Televisa
Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April ...
conglomerate. Televisa absorbed all of TIM's assets, including its television transmitters and its series, including pioneering programs such as
El Chavo del Ocho
''El Chavo'' ("The Kid/The Boy", Spanish also meaning " cent"), also known as ''El Chavo del Ocho'' ("The Kid/Boy from Number Eight") during its earliest episodes, is a Mexican television sitcom series created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños (Che ...
.
History
1965–68: From Monterrey south
Grupo Monterrey, a prolific regional conglomerate owned by the Garza Sada family, decided to enter the television business. In 1963, its subsidiary Televisión del Norte, S.A. obtained the concession to opeate XET-TV, channel 6 in the city of Monterrey on April 5, 1963, signing on in 1965. This was the first step towards an expansion to a national scale, obtaining the license of XHFM-TV, channel 2 en
the port of Veracruz, and later, XHP-TV, channel 3 in
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
.
As part of the strategy, Teleproductora Independiente de México was created, which started hiring Cuban creatives who fled the country after the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
(producing with them the television version of the classic radio format,
La Tremenda Corte
La Tremenda Corte was a radio comedy show produced from the Radiocentro CMQ Building in Havana, Cuba. The scripts were written by Cástor Vispo, a Spaniard who became a Cuban citizen. The show was aired nonstop from 1942 to 1961. Later, the format ...
), and with other local talents, started to form a schedule with new innovative concepts, such as the so-called "railroad shows" (programas-ferrocarril) on weekends, called that way due to their variety, connected and directed by a main presenter.
Unlike other stations which were founded in
Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
, which was the largest media market in the country, TIM was founded in the northern Mexican city of
Monterrey
Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
, where Garza Sada already owned a brewery (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, now part of
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star.
History
On 15 February 1864, ...
) and a glass factory, among other assets. The goal of TIM was to provide an alternative to the television stations located in Mexico City, chiefly
XEW-TV
XEW-TDT (channel 2) is a television station in Mexico City, Mexico. The station is owned by TelevisaUnivision and is the flagship station to the Las Estrellas network. XEW is the second-oldest Televisa station and Mexico City's second-oldest s ...
on channel 2,
XHTV-TV
XHTV-TDT (channel 4) is a Mexican television station, serving Mexico City as the flagship relay of the N+ Foro channel. The station is owned-and-operated by locally based Grupo Televisa alongside XEW-TDT, XHGC-TDT and XEQ-TDT carrying Las Estrel ...
on channel 4, and
XHGC-TV
XHGC-TDT (channel 5) is a television station in Mexico City. Owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision, it is the flagship of the Canal 5 network.
History
XHGC signed on May 10, 1952, broadcasting a Mother's Day event organized by the Excélsi ...
on channel 5.
In Monterrey TIM received the channel 6 allocation, which it built as
XET-TV
XET-TDT is a television station in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision. The station carries the Canal 5 network.
History
XET-TV analog channel 6 began broadcasting in 1960, as the first station of Televisi� ...
. It then sought to enter other major Mexican markets before eventually targeting Mexico City, a task that had TIM building stations elsewhere. In
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
it built and signed on
XHFM-TV channel 2, and in
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
it created
XHP-TV channel 3, placed midway between Veracruz and Mexico City. It was in Puebla that
José Ramón Fernández
José Ramón Fernández Álvarez (November 4, 1923 – January 6, 2019) was a Cuban Communist leader who was a vice-president of the Council of Ministers.
Pre-Revolution life
Fernández Alvarez was born in Santiago de Cuba, where he studied h ...
, one of Mexico's pioneering sports journalists, got his start.
TIM finally entered Mexico City in 1967, in time for the
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...
. In Mexico City, TIM received a concession for channel 8, which was given the callsign XHTM-TV. It built new facilities in the
San Ángel
San Ángel is a ''Colonia (Mexico), colonia'' (neighborhood) located in the southwest of Mexico City in Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, Álvaro Obregón borough. Historically it was a rural community called Tenanitla in the pre-Hispanic period. It ...
neighborhood. TIM's entry into Mexico City put it into direct competition with Telesistema Mexicano, which had just been formed between Azcárraga, XHTV owner Romulo O'Farrill Jr., and the shares of the deceased
Guillermo González Camarena (owner of XHGC), for viewers in the nation's capital. Its regular broadcasts started on January 25, 1969.
Per petition of President Díaz Ordaz, Salas Peyró associated with Grupo Monterrey to form a network with Grupo Monterrey's stations, with Channel 8 as its basis. The new network established itself at the studios of the former "San Ángel Inn" movie theatre and used the facilities to create telenovelas and other groundbreaking programs. After a brief period, Salas Peyró decided to leave the business and sold his shares to Grupo Monterrey.
With four stations in key markets, especially in the country's capital, thanks to its schedule, the new network becomes a real threat to Telesistema Mexicano which up until then had been in a hegemonical position in the country.
1968–70: Telecadena Mexicana
Movie businessman Manuel Barbachano Ponce founds Telecadena Mexicana, establishing its first channel in Monterrey on February 24, 1968, expanding later to 15 television stations across Mexico's territory.
The central characteristic was the privilege of feature films in its schedule, in place of being "filler" like the other television companies. Out of the stations that made up Telecadena, three stations in the north of the country, were owned to a concessionaire other than Barbachano, being licensed to José Manuel Acosta Castañeda.
1970–72: At war with Telesistema Mexicano
In January 1970, Manuel Barbachano Ponce, due to financial problems, decided to affiliate 11 out of the 15 Telecadena Mexicana stations to Canal 8, thus forming Televisión Independiente de México or Cadena TIM, achieving coverage in 50% of Mexican territory.
With this, an intense war between the two giants of Mexican television, TIM and Telesistema Mexicano, broke out. TIM presented its new, groundbreaking formats and new faces such as
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Mario Gómez Bolaños (21 February 1929 – 28 November 2014), more commonly known by his stage name Chespirito, or "Little William Shakespeare, Shakespeare", was a Mexican actor, comedian, screenwriter, humorist, director, produce ...
"Chespirito", who had been a scriptwriter for the comic pair "
Viruta y
Capulina", and was now presenting himself performing characters that later became true Latin American television icons, such as ''
El Chapulín Colorado
() is a Mexican television comedy series that aired from 1973 to 1979 and parodied superhero shows. It was created by actor and comedian Chespirito, who also played the main character. It was first aired by Televisa in 1973 in Mexico, a ...
'' and ''
El Chavo
''El Chavo'' ("The Kid/The Boy", Spanish also meaning "Cent (currency), cent"), also known as ''El Chavo del Ocho'' ("The Kid/Boy from Number Eight") during its earliest episodes, is a Mexican sitcom, television sitcom series created by Chespi ...
''; from this last one, it's been told that viewers colloquially called him as "El Chavo del 8" for the channel in which it aired. Room was given to other comic artists such as
Los Polivoces. Following the concept of the railroad programs, presenter
Raúl Velasco
Raúl Velasco Ramírez (April 24, 1933 – November 26, 2006) was a Mexican Television presenter, host/Television producer, producer of the TV show ''Siempre en Domingo (TV series), Siempre en Domingo'' (''Always on Sunday'') which is his hallma ...
, in his ''Domingos Espectaculares'' program, became one of Mexico's most famous television presenters with his programs running for several hours, where national and international artists were presented and new artists were revealed, such as comedian
María Elena Velasco
María Elena Velasco Fragoso (17 December 1940 – 1 May 2015) was a Mexican actress, comedian, singer-songwriter and dancer. She is best known for creating and portraying La India María, a comical character based on indigenous Mexican women.
...
, La India María. Using its film studios, iconic productions were created, and thanks to an agreement with a company with Peruvian capitals,
Panamericana Televisión
Panamericana Televisión (sometimes shortened to Panamericana and formerly known as PANTEL) is a Peruvian television network, which was founded on July 21, 1957 and Was later begun its official broadcast on October 16, 1959.
It is Peru's third ...
de México, TIM's productions are exported to other countries in the region and, in an exclusive manner, broadcast the Peruvian adaptation of ''
Simplemente María'', which became a standard for the genre.
El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa
/ref>
Telesistema Mexicano began to lose, not only in ratings and money, but also strong advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and even key figures who were vital to the Azcárraga company, like Luis de Llano Palmer, who produced the successful gameshow ''Juan Pirulero'' for Canal 8. Nevertheless, the program was criticized from its beginning, as the opinion of some viewers denigrated the public in the nature of its games that had as a prize, most of the time, small appliances such as blenders or irons. Por otro lado, On the other side, Telesistema Mexicano managed to obtain Raúl Velasco, taking the advantage that the presenter parted from TIM when the network decided to change the format of his show. His new show, ''Siempre en domingo
''Siempre en Domingo'' (translated ''Always on Sunday'') was a Mexican variety show created and hosted by Raúl Velasco. The show aired on Televisa from December 14, 1969, until April 19, 1998, when Velasco retired.
''Siempre en Domingo'' became o ...
'', continued in the same format as ''Domingos Espectaculares''.
Merger and legacy
Even with the growing success of TIM, losses began to increase at both television companies, due to taxes and government fees on the television stations and other business factors. Emilio Azcárraga Milmo
Emilio Azcárraga Milmo or Emilio Azcárraga Jr. (September 6, 1930, in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas – April 16, 1997, outside Miami, Miami, Florida) was a Mexican businessman and the son of Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta and Laura Milmo Hi ...
, son of the founder of Telesistema Mexicano, began secret talks with Bernardo Garza Sada to create a conglomerate that benefitted both companies to avoid more losses. On the other hand, and despite the company's economic situation, Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta
Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895 – 23 September 1972) was a Mexican businessman, known for founding the entertainment conglomerate Telesistema Mexicano (now Televisa).
Early life
Azcárraga was born on 2 March 1895 in Tampico, Ta ...
refused to have a partnership with its biggest competitor. On September 23, 1972, Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta died. The merger process of TIM and Telesistema Mexicano finally began. After convincing the government of Luis Echeverría, the merger of the two television companies was approved, signing on November 28, 1972 the agreement that gave rise to the new television company, which would be 75% integrated by Telesistema Mexicano and 25% by Independent Television of Mexico. Thus, on January 8, 1973, the new company called 'Televisión Vía Satélite, S.A.' was formally initiated. de C.V.'', a business later and better known as Televisa
Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April ...
.
The XHTM-based television network was slowly dismantled, with the transmitters being used to broadcast Televisa's other national networks.
In 1985, the Mexican government sought to build a channel 7 in Mexico City under the auspices of Imevisión
The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión (''Mexican Television Institute''), known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks ...
, which was given the callsign XHIMT-TV
XHIMT-TDT (channel 7) is the flagship station and namesake of Mexico's Azteca 7 television network, located in Mexico City.
History
XHIMT came to air on May 15, 1985, as part of Imevisión's relaunch of the Televisión de la República Mexican ...
. In order to facilitate the additional station, a frequency and callsign change was conducted involving XHTM and Televisa's XEQ-TV channel 9 in Puebla. The end result was that the Mexico City station became XEQ-TV
XEQ-TDT (channel 9) is a television station in Mexico City, serving as the flagship of the Nu9ve network. Unlike the other major networks in Mexico, Nu9ve is broadcast by a mix of full-time repeaters as well as local stations, operated by Telev ...
, channel 9. Meanwhile, XEX-TV channel 7 moved to channel 8, while the Puebla XEQ became XHTM-TV, a rebroadcaster of XEW-TV located on channel 10. XEQ was primarily available in Mexico City until Televisa received approval in 1993 to extend its reach with 62 new transmitters.
Significant competition in Mexican television would not return until the 1990s and the privatization of Imevisión into a new company, Televisión Azteca
Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as som ...
, which inherited Imevisión's channels 7 and 13.
Stations that took part in the network
Telecadena Mexicana stations not affiliated to TIM
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television Independiente de Mexico
Television networks in Mexico
TIM
Mass media companies established in 1965
Mass media companies disestablished in 1973
1973 mergers and acquisitions
1973 disestablishments in Mexico