XETV-TDT

XETV-TDT
Brand	Canal 5
City of License	Tijuana, Baja California
Market	San Diego, California
Channel	23 digital 6 virtual Subcarrier: 6.2 (Nu9ve) Formerly: 6 analog (1953-2013)
Network Affiliation	Current: Canal 5 Formerly: Independent (1953-56, 1973–86) ABC (1956–73) FOX (1986–2008) The CW (2008–17)
Founded	April 29, 1953
Company	Grupo Televisa
President
Current Popular Non-Network Shows

XETV-TDT is the call sign for a full service border blaster television station in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is a repeater for Mexico City station XHGC-TDT, which is the flagship of the Hispanic network Canal 5. The station is owned by Mexican media company Grupo Televisa. It broadcasts on digital channel 23, and is displayed on tuners as virtual channel 6, its original analog spot. Its signal penetrates into the city of San Diego, which is its designated market. Analog channel 6 was shut off on July 18, 2013. Mexico's digital transmissions were fully effected in 2015 with all full-power analog transmissions now ceased.

History

The station signed on in the 1950s as a supplement to the San Diego television market after the city had run out of VHF television allotments. It was independent until 1956, when the station was permitted to have ABC affiliation. As a Mexican station, XETV had to have ABC shows bicycled to them from another source (recorded elsewhere and the tapes/films transported physically to the station). By 1961, XETV had ABC programming delivered directly to them from the network. Their status as a border blaster meant their agreement with ABC had to be renewed annually. This didn't last, as KNSD, channel 39, successfully wrestled affiliation away on July 1, 1973, when KNSD was independent KCST. The station charged that a Mexican station could not be affiliated with an American network. It remained independent for two more decades until it affiliated with FOX. Again, as with ABC, XETV had to have FOX shows bicycled to them until 1994 when FOX won the NFC football package from CBS. XETV was granted a waiver to air the football games live as well as the rest of FOX's shows. Independent KUSI, channel 51, tried to block the waiver in an attempt to steal FOX from XETV but failed.

XETV logo from 1957, from their early ABC days.

On August 1, 2008, FOX moved its affiliation to KSWB, channel 69, which had been a CW affiliate. XETV switched to The CW network at that time. They called themselves "San Diego 6 The CW" (now "The CW 6") as they continued to fight losing the Fox affiliation in court.

Due to its Mexican license, the station does not fall under the FCC's must-carry regulation. However, local cable stations had been carrying it anyway, due to the CW network and the station's signal from Mt. San Antonio, west of Tijuana, cannot be seen adequately in north San Diego county areas with regular antennas. XETV was seen on DirecTV (channel 395) for viewers who cannot adequately receive CW in their nearest market. With their switch to Canal 5, DirecTV has replaced it with KTLA/channel 5 from Los Angeles.

On January 26, 2017, XETV announced that it would switch affiliations to Televisa-owned Spanish-language network Gala TV effective May 31, 2017 (XETV later backtracked on this), while the CW affiliation moved to a subchannel of CBS affiliate KFMB on that date (the move of the CW affiliation to KFMB was originally planned for September 1, 2017, but was later moved up to May 31 at the CW's request). With the switch by XETV to Canal 5 (according to their Twitter feed), Bay City Television, the Televisa subsidiary which had operated the station, ceased operations on May 31. XETV is solely a Tijuana station now.

Digital programming

Virtual	Physical	Name	Programming
6.1	23.1	XETV-DT	Main XETV (Canal 5, a repeater for XHCG-TDT)

External Links

Official Site