Digital television in Mexico

Mexican television company Televisa made experimental HDTV broadcasts in the early-1990s, in collaboration with Japan's NHK. Some events are now broadcast in high definition. During the first half of 2005, at least one cable provider in Mexico City, Cablevision, has begun to offer 5 HDTV channels to subscribers purchasing a digital video recorder (DVR).

In 2005, TV Azteca signed a deal with Harris Corporation's broadcast communications division for digital TV transmitters and HDTV encoding equipment to bring high-definition TV to nine Mexican cities.Fact|date=February 2007 The launch was carried out in two phases. By the third quarter of 2005, HDTV transmissions from TV Azteca were available in Mexico's largest markets: Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Phase Two of TV Azteca's national roll-out brought HDTV services to six cities along the Mexico-U.S. border (Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali, and Tijuana) by the first half of 2006. This roll-out took advantage of HDTV receivers already in place thanks to an earlier HDTV roll-out by stations on the American side of the border. TV Azteca has also broadcast the Mexican football tournament in HDTV, and almost all retailers have started shipping televisions with HDTV tuners.Fact|date=February 2007

XETV in Tijuana, Baja California, is on the air in HDTV using 720p format. This affiliate of the American Fox TV Network is on UHF channel 23 broadcasting from Mt. San Antonio in Tijuana, with 403,000 watts, directed primarily northward at San Diego. In January 2006, Televisa's XEFB-TV and Multimedios' XHAW-TV in Monterrey began HDTV transmissions on UHF channels 48 and 50, respectively. In February 2006, Televisa's XHUAA in Tijuana began its HDTV transmissions on channel 20. Unfortunately they have no HDTV programs. Channel 20 broadcasts an upconverted version of the programs of XHUAA's analog signal on channel 57. In Guadalajara, Televisa channels 2 (XHGA HD), 4 (XHG HD) and 9 (XEWO HD) and TV Azteca channels 11 (XHSFJ 1) and 13 (XHJAL 1) are available in 1080i format.Fact|date=February 2007

While Televisa has HDTV channels in places other than Mexico City, like Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, Monterrey and others, there are certain shows they have only showed in HD in Mexico City. In places other than Mexico City, scheduling has been non-standard. For example, XHJCI-TV in Juarez, has for much of its history, only rebroadcasts HD signals from 6-9 PM Monday to Friday. In Juarez neither Alma De Hierro, Football games, nor news programming had aired in HD, until July 18, 2008 when Televisa fixed the issue. [http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14409197#post14409197]

Official plan for Mexican DTT

Currently there are 38 digital channels in Mexico. [http://www.cofetel.gob.mx/wb/Cofetel_2008/Cofe_canales_de_television_digital_in] They are:
*8 in Mexico DF
*6 in Monterrey
*5 in Guadalajara
*6 in Tijuana
*3 in Juarez
*3 in Mexicali
*2 in Reynosa
*2 in Matamoros
*3 in Nuevo Laredo

The transition calls for 6 triannual periods and started on July 5, 2004 just three days after they adopted ATSC. The analog signal will be cut off no later than January 1, 2022. [cite web |url=http://www.cft.gob.mx/wb/COFETEL/COFE_Periodos_de_Transicion_a_la_TDT |title=Televisión Digital Terrestre (TDT) |accessdate=2007-11-30 (in Spanish)] The analog signal can be turned off in a region once COFETEL determines that there is a high enough prenetration of digital TVs.

Definitions
*Digital Presence = At least 20% of what is reached by the analog signal
*Digital Replication = At least 90% of what is reached by analog signal

Phase I

Phase I was from July 5, 2004 to December 31, 2006.Digital presence of at least 2 commercial signals in the following cities:

** México, D.F.
**Monterrey, N.L.
**Guadalajara, Jal.
**Tijuana, B.C.
**Mexicali, B.C.
**Cd. Juárez, Chih.
**Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
**Matamoros, Tamaulipas
**Reynosa, Tamaulipas

Phase II

Phase II is in progress, and began on January 1, 2007, completing on December 31, 2009.
*Digital replication of signal of Phase I
*Digital presence of at least 2 commercial signals in cities with 1.5 million people or more.

Phase III

January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2012
*Digital replication of signal of Phase II
*Digital presence of non-commercial signals in cities with 1.5 million people or more.
*Digital presence of at least 2 commercial signals in cities with 1 million people or more.
*All digital Channels must broadcast at least 20% HDTV. At least one hour during primetime, and at least one hour during the morning.

Phase IV

January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2015
*Digital replication of signal of Phase III
*Digital presence of non commercial signals in cities with 1 million people or more.
*Digital presence of at least 2 commercial signals in cities with half a million people or more.

Phase V

January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2018
*Digital replication of signal of Phase IV
*Digital presence of non commercial signals in cities with half a million people or more.
*Digital presence of at least 2 commercial signals in cities with 150 thousand people or more.

Phase VI

January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2021
*Digital replication of all analog signals

List of stations

A full list of digital stations is available from [http://www.cofetel.gob.mx/wb/Cofetel_2008/Cofe_canales_de_television_digital_in cofetel.gb.mx] ; as of June 30, 2008 there are currently 38 digital stations operational:

References

= External links =
* [http://www.cofetel.gob.mx/wb/Cofetel_2008/Cofe_calendario_de_transicion COFETEL (Comisión Federal de Telecomunicación) Plan for DTT]
* [http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=878152 Mexican HDTV]