Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico.
Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. Azteca 7 broadcasts entertainment series, movies, and sporting events targeting a general audience, and programs for children during the daytime. In programming, its main national competitor in open television has historically been Canal 5 of TelevisaUnivision.
History
Imevisión's channel 7
To bring a channel 7 to Mexico City, which had channels 2, 4, 5, 8, 11 and 13, a channel shuffle had to be made. This channel shuffle converted Televisa's station
XEQ-TDT channel 8 to channel 9. Two Puebla stations, XEX-TV channel 7 and XEQ-TV channel 9, moved to channels 8 and 10; XEQ took on the XHTM callsign that was discontinued in Mexico City. In Toluca, channel 7 (
XHGEM-TV) was moved to channel 12, and
XHTOL-TV moved from channel 9 to 10.
XHIMT-TDT took to the air on 15 May 1985, as the third of three Mexico City stations operated by public broadcaster Imevisión, sister to
XHDF-TV channel 13 and
XEIMT-TV channel 22, and the flagship station of a second Imevisión national network which featured 99 repeater stations, larger than any commercial network of the time, serving 72% of the population.
The new Red Nacional 7 (7 National Network) was positioned as targeting the working class and rural areas, whose programming would reflect "the national identity", while Red Nacional 13, based from XHDF, targeted a more middle- and upper-class audience.
Because the new network lacked its own building, initial operating costs were estimated to be of over US$1 million. Initial programming included educational programs during daytime hours, primetime entertainment and news updates every 30 minutes.
TV Azteca's channel 7
However, financial mismanagement, economic troubles and other issues quickly signaled trouble for Imevisión. The network had become a mere frequency with a limited transmitter farm, with seven hours of its programming on weekdays in 1990 (half of its weekday airtime) was still dedicated to high school educational programming (
Telesecundaria). There were even talks of Multivisión owner Joaquín Vargas buying the network.
In 1990, XEIMT and XHIMT were converted into relays of XHDF, and the next year, the government of Mexico announced it was selling XHIMT and XHDF to the private sector. The sale of these two networks in 1993 formed the new TV Azteca network.
By October 1993, XHIMT was operating independently under Azteca as Tú Visión. The programming of Azteca 7 since then has largely consisted of children's programs, sports, foreign series and movies, serving as a competitor to Televisa's Canal 5.
Programming
Foreign shows aired on Azteca 7 include
The Amazing World of Gumball,
Bernard,
Bluey,
Dexter's Laboratory,
Dragon Ball Z,
FBI,
The Good Doctor,
Malcolm in the Middle,
Milo,
Pokémon,
The Simpsons,
Smallville,
The Smurfs,
and recently .
Sports
After its privatization, Azteca 7 began carrying
NBA basketball, though Televisa now holds these rights. Soccer rights on Azteca 7 include the
Liga MX, as well as all official and
of the Mexico national soccer team. Azteca 7 also carries
NFL games, boxing (
Box Azteca) and
lucha libre (
Lucha Azteca).
Azteca 7 transmitters
Azteca 7 has 89 full-power transmitters that broadcast its programming; it also is carried, albeit in SD, as a subchannel of 14 additional
Azteca Uno transmitters. Except in the border cities of
Tijuana,
Mexicali and Ciudad Juárez, Azteca 7 is exclusively mapped to virtual channel 7 nationwide.
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External links
