XHMZE-TV

XHMZE-TV is a television station in Zacatepec, Morelos. Broadcasting on channel 22 from a transmitter located in the city proper, Canal 22 is owned by the municipality of Zacatepec.

History

On February 15, 1999, the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation awarded a permit for a non-commercial television station on channel 22 to the municipality.^[2] It was the first time a municipality had received a permit for a television station in Mexico, and it also represented the second public television station in the state of Morelos, after XHCMO-TV in Cuernavaca.

In 2011, the town council of Zacatepec authorized an outsourcing agreement under which the operations of channel 22 would be undertaken by a private venture, the Society for the Economic Development and Promotion of Investment in Municipalities (abbreviated as DEFIMEX).^[3] However, a change in administration occurred in January 2013, and the new government immediately set out to cancel the agreement and retake control of the station, responding to concerns that a public resource should not be operated privately. In March 2013, the municipality bought a new transmitter for the station, as the old one had burned.^[4] However, legal action by DEFIMEX to the tune of millions of US dollars,^[5] and the discoveries that the station had been illegally tapping into CFE power facilities and that the structure had several deficiencies, have kept the station off the air.^[6]

The station operated at a low power, which allows it to reach some 40 kilometres (25 mi) away from the transmitter in Zacatepec.

References