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
XHTM-TV 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-TV took to the air on May 15, 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 serving 72% of the population.[1] The new Red Nacional 7 (7 National Network) was positioned as targeting the working class and rural areas, while Red Nacional 13, based from XHDF, targeted a more middle- and upper-class audience.
TV Azteca's channel 7
However, financial mismanagement, economic troubles and other issues quickly signaled trouble for Imevisión. 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.
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
friendly matches of the
Mexico national soccer team. Azteca 7 also carries
NFL games, boxing (Box Azteca) and
lucha libre (Lucha Azteca).
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.[2][3]