The Final TV Border Blaster Is Over
XHAS to be operated by Intermedia: end of an era at Tijuana’s 33
On Wednesday, the television station group that loves its double numbers — 44 and 66 — gets a new one: 33. That’s because Intermedia is taking over XHAS-TDT in Tijuana, bringing to an end more than 30 years of cross-border operation.
The relaunch of XHAS as Canal 33 on Wednesday, November 2, will bring to an end this history right as its controlling operator, Entravision Communications, would have needed to make a decision on the station’s future programming with the impending shutdown of Azteca América on December 31, first reported by Produ. It also comes in the wake of the IFT approving Canal 66 Mexicali, XHILA, as a subchannel of the station several weeks ago.
For the first time since shortly after the birth of Mexican television, there will not be a station programmed primarily from or toward the United States. The lengthy history of this activity — embodied by stations like Tijuana’s XETV (from 1953 to 2017), the short-lived XELD-TV in Matamoros in the 1950s, and others — is winding down.
A Quick History of Tijuana’s 33
XHAS had a complicated and prolonged birth. The concession was first awarded in 1968, but it sat unbuilt for more than a decade. The SCT threatened to take the concession from Tele Nacional, S.A., in 1978, beginning an administrative proceeding. However, that was not the fate about to befall the station, as it began broadcasting in 1981. Its programming initially came nearly entirely from XEW in Mexico City, and this continued to be the case for years.
However, as Baja California was among the first Mexican states to see a post-PRI political awakening, the effects were felt on channel 33. In 1985, XHAS contracted a company known as Logovisión to begin airing a newscast known as Síntesis. It earned a following, particularly after it reported on voting irregularities in 1989’s state elections, and Televisa retaliated by revoking the station’s right to air some of its programs with local advertising. (XHUAA-TV on channel 57 was about to come on the air anyway as the new XEW transmitter.) Imevisión filled the void for a time, but in 1990, XHAS switched to Telemundo. That decision got them a talking-to from the SCT, which asked for an explanation of the “arbitrary” affiliation change and threatened revocation of the concession. Síntesis moved off channel 33 in 1994, when it was decided to start an in-house news operation, which has continued to the present day.
In 2000, Entravision, through Televisora Alco (for Jorge Alonso Coratella), purchased XHAS from its original ownership. That decision irked Telemundo, because Telemundo had previously negotiated a right of first refusal for channel 33 and intended on buying it for $30 million.
The Telemundo affiliation proved very durable, but it died at the hands of NBC, the network’s owner, which was trying to expand its portfolio of owned-and-operated Telemundo stations and wanted to have Telemundo operations in every city where it owned the NBC station. That meant San Diego. And in 2017, that’s what happened: NBC took Telemundo in-house, expanding KNSD’s newsroom to produce Spanish-language local news. XHAS ran to Azteca América, needing another source of programming. Now, that river is running dry; it is worth noting that the Azteca affiliation agreement with HC2 Networks was an at-will arrangement.
Television Reconfiguration
The Intermedia move into Tijuana is half of a picture where one television station sale appears to be leading to major changes at two other spots on the dial.
In January 2022, PSN took over Grupo Cadena’s XHBJ-TDT 45.
That change displaced the programming that XHBJ had been airing after losing Nu9ve, which consisted of Multimedios Televisión and some Canal 66 fare from Mexicali.
On October 12, the IFT approved new subchannels for XHDTV-TDT 49, the other Entravisión–Alco station in this market, and XHAS. The subchannels were Multimedios for XHDTV, which has been subsisting on Milenio Televisión for quite some time now, and Canal 66 for XHAS.
It is easy to imagine Entravision selling. With the pulling of the plug on XHRIO-TDT in Matamoros at the end of 2021, these are the last two Entravision-controlled Mexican stations — anachronisms after the digital transition allowed for American operators (including Entravision itself) to repatriate the programs they once had to put on border-blaster TVs. The company’s activities have become increasingly centered on digital advertising, including well beyond the Spanish-speaking world. EVC’s website bills them as a “leading global advertising, media and ad-tech solutions company connecting brands to consumers by representing top platforms and publishers”. Entravision has long-term time brokerage agreements to program both stations, and mutual consent to terminate would be required.
The new subchannels indicate very obvious potential buyers for each station — the parties Cadena left hanging when it handed XHBJ over to PSN. Both groups have clear strategic interest in expanding into this market. Along with San Luis Potosí, Tijuana is one of the few markets where Multimedios owns in radio but not television, especially having had a radio presence in the city for decades — and Entravision already has the Multimedios relationship in using Milenio Televisión to sustain channel 49. And Intermedia expanding to another border city with a local TV tradition makes way too much sense. The Cabadas will be familiar with this type of move, having made it in establishing XHICCH several years ago.
Unanswered Questions
There are good questions to be asked, and the answers will likely be swift to come. XHAS was producing a local 5 p.m. news hour (it once did late news, too, but that seems to have been abandoned at some point), which neatly complemented Univisión (KBNT-CD)’s regimented 6 and 11 p.m. local news windows from the same newsroom. That is sure to go, to be replaced with a schedule that probably looks a lot like the existing 66.
Another question of burning interest might be about cable. XHAS is carried as channel 15 on Spectrum and Cox, and 33 on U-verse, in San Diego. XHIJ is not carried on Spectrum in El Paso, though XHILA is seen on channel 14 in the Spectrum system in El Centro. If these agreements do not carry over, it is unlikely that Canal 33 remains on cable north of the border.
More answers could be forthcoming later this week when Entravision releases its third-quarter earnings.
