Canal 13 is a regional broadcasting network operating in parts of Mexico, a division of
Albavisión. Its largest subsidiary, Telsusa Televisión México, S.A. de C.V., holds the concessions for 12 TV stations, primarily in southeastern Mexico, obtained in the IFT-6 television station auction of 2017. The Canal 13 network also includes full-fledged TV stations in
Villahermosa,
San Cristóbal de las Casas—
Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, or Tuxtla, (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Mexico, Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which is the most developed and populous in the state. A busy govern ...
and
Tapachula, as well as their repeaters, and an additional station in
Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
. All Canal 13 stations are assigned virtual channel 13.
History
In Tabasco and Chiapas
The core of the Canal 13 network was born in 1980 with the concession award of
XHTVL-TV, analog channel 9 in Villahermosa, to Tele-Emisoras del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. (from which the name Telsusa is derived). Tele-Emisoras was owned by
Remigio Ángel González, a Guatemalan entrepreneur who would later accumulate media holdings elsewhere in Latin America, as well as radio station owner
Francisco Javier Sánchez Campuzano and Manuel Efraín Abán Méndez, who had placed the winning application for the channel in 1979, beating out Jorge Kanahuati Gómez and Fernando Laurencio Pazos de la Torre.
XHTVL later expanded its area of influence to
Tenosique with the launch of satellite station XHTOE-TV (analog channel 12) and into southern Veracruz, where Tele-Emisoras del Sureste principals took over noncommercial station XHCVP-TV in
Coatzacoalcos. XHCVP, while a social station, operates as a repeater of XHTVL, and in 2016, it was legally represented by lawyers associated with Albavisión.
On June 19, 1984, José de Jesús Partida Villanueva, one of Chiapas's pioneer broadcasters, received concessions for two further stations.
XHDY-TV Channel 5 would cover central Chiapas, including
San Cristóbal de las Casas and the state capital of
Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, or Tuxtla, (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Mexico, Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which is the most developed and populous in the state. A busy govern ...
, while
XHGK-TV Channel 4 was ultimately moved from an initial assignment in
Comitán de Domínguez to be placed in
Tapachula and cover the Soconusco region. In 1987, Sánchez Campuzano exited the partnership, as well as his stake in Comunicación del Sureste, which owned
XHDY and
XHGK.
Despite González being born in Mexico, Telsusa was a small link in Albavisión, which grew to wield considerable national broadcasting—and political—power elsewhere in Latin America. González's close relationship with Televisa secured affiliations with the company for his stations, which broadcast programming from
Gala TV and
Foro TV along with local news and productions; Tele-Emisoras del Sureste and Comunicación del Sureste were considered part of the "preponderant economic agent" in broadcasting. In March 2020, the IFT approved an application for Tele-Emisoras del Sureste to be removed from this designation, as it aired no Televisa programming.
Toward a regional network
González set his sights on expanding his Mexican holdings as early as 2008, when ''
Proceso'' reported that he was eyeing the creation of a national television network if new TV stations were put out for bid. While he did not participate in the IFT-1 national network auction of 2015 that produced
Imagen Televisión, his Telsusa Televisión Mexico, S.A. de C.V., was the largest winner of stations in the IFT-6 station auction of 2017, emerging with 12 stations. The new stations expanded Telsusa's footprint to the entire
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...
, with seven total stations in
Campeche,
Yucatán and
Quintana Roo, as well as two in Veracruz and one each in Puebla, Guanajuato (
León), and Nuevo León (
Agualeguas); the company paid 261.5 million
pesos for the stations.
Activity remained mostly quiet on the new stations through 2018, with the exception of an agreement with the
Sistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano to use SPR transmitter sites in Campeche, Xalapa and Mérida. Significant changes, however, were in store at the legacy Telsusa outlets, which dropped all Televisa programming, slightly expanded their local news production, and relocated from virtual channel 9 to 13 (as
Nu9ve and
Foro TV prevented the use of it in most other areas; Nu9ve and Foro TV now has virtual channel 9 in the entire former Telsusa footprint).
The first new Telsusa station to begin broadcasting was XHTMQR-TDT in
Cancún, which began testing in June 2019. In September 2019, five more stations hit the air in the span of a week, covering
Valladolid, Yucatán,
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 ...
,
Campeche,
Mérida and
Ciudad del Carmen. The two transmitters in the state of Veracruz and XHTMGJ-TDT in
León were commissioned in April 2020. Three more IFT-6 stations remain to be put on air.
In March 2020, Canal 13 programming began to air on
XHBG-TDT in the state of Michoacán. That station, a former Televisa-aligned local outlet, had shuttered its own local operation in early January.
Local program production there was started at the same time. Six months later, the IFT approved the transfer of the station's concession to Telsusa.
During 2022, Telsusa acquired
XEDK-TDT in Jalisco and
XHBO-TDT in Oaxaca, being transferred some time later.
Telsusa stations
Including the twelve IFT-4 stations, Telsusa holds 16 commercial television station concessions, primarily in southeastern Mexico, and controls a 17th social station. An 18th station is currently affiliated with the network.
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Notes
References
External links
{{official website, canal13mexico.com
1980 establishments in Mexico
Television networks in Mexico