Televisión Independiente de México (transl. 'Independent Television of Mexico'; known on air asTIM orCadena TIM) was aMexican national television network founded in 1965 byEugenio Garza Sada. It operated until 1973, when it merged with its primary competitor,Telesistema Mexicano, owned byEmilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, to form theTelevisa conglomerate. Televisa absorbed all of TIM's assets, including its television transmitters and its series, including pioneering programs such asEl Chavo del Ocho.

Grupo Monterrey, a prolific regional conglomerate owned by the Garza Sada family, decided to enter the television business. In 1963, its subsidiary Televisión del Norte, S.A. obtained the concession to opeateXET-TV, channel 6 in the city of Monterrey on April 5, 1963,^[1] signing on in 1965. This was the first step towards an expansion to a national scale, obtaining the license ofXHFM-TV, channel 2 enthe port of Veracruz, and later,XHP-TV, channel 3 inPuebla.

As part of the strategy, Teleproductora Independiente de México was created, which started hiring Cuban creatives who fled the country after theCuban Revolution (producing with them the television version of the classic radio format,La Tremenda Corte), and with other local talents, started to form a schedule with new innovative concepts, such as the so-called "railroad shows" (programas-ferrocarril) on weekends, called that way due to their variety, connected and directed by a main presenter.^[2]

Unlike other stations which were founded inMexico City, which was the largest media market in the country, TIM was founded in the northern Mexican city ofMonterrey, where Garza Sada already owned a brewery (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, now part ofHeineken) and a glass factory, among other assets. The goal of TIM was to provide an alternative to the television stations located in Mexico City, chieflyXEW-TV on channel 2,XHTV-TV on channel 4, andXHGC-TV on channel 5.

In Monterrey TIM received the channel 6 allocation, which it built asXET-TV. It then sought to enter other major Mexican markets before eventually targeting Mexico City, a task that had TIM building stations elsewhere. InVeracruz it built and signed onXHFM-TV channel 2, and inPuebla it createdXHP-TV channel 3, placed midway between Veracruz and Mexico City. It was in Puebla thatJosé Ramón Fernández, one of Mexico's pioneering sports journalists, got his start.

TIM finally entered Mexico City in 1967, in time for the1968 Summer Olympics. In Mexico City, TIM received a concession for channel 8, which was given the callsignXHTM-TV. It built new facilities in theSan Ángel neighborhood. TIM's entry into Mexico City put it into direct competition with Telesistema Mexicano, which had just been formed between Azcárraga, XHTV owner Romulo O'Farrill Jr., and the shares of the deceasedGuillermo González Camarena (owner of XHGC), for viewers in the nation's capital. Its regular broadcasts started on January 25, 1969.^[3]

Per petition of President Díaz Ordaz, Salas Peyró associated with Grupo Monterrey to form a network with Grupo Monterrey's stations, with Channel 8 as its basis. The new network established itself at the studios of the former "San Ángel Inn" movie theatre and used the facilities to create telenovelas and other groundbreaking programs. After a brief period, Salas Peyró decided to leave the business and sold his shares to Grupo Monterrey.^[4]

With four stations in key markets, especially in the country's capital, thanks to its schedule, the new network becomes a real threat to Telesistema Mexicano which up until then had been in a hegemonical position in the country.

Movie businessman Manuel Barbachano Ponce founds Telecadena Mexicana, establishing its first channel in Monterrey on February 24, 1968, expanding later to 15 television stations across Mexico's territory.^[2] The central characteristic was the privilege of feature films in its schedule, in place of being "filler" like the other television companies. Out of the stations that made up Telecadena, three stations in the north of the country, were owned to a concessionaire other than Barbachano, being licensed to José Manuel Acosta Castañeda.^[5]

In January 1970, Manuel Barbachano Ponce, due to financial problems,^[6] decided to affiliate 11^[7] out of the 15 Telecadena Mexicana stations to Canal 8, thus forming Televisión Independiente de México or Cadena TIM, achieving coverage in 50% of Mexican territory.^[2]

With this, an intense war between the two giants of Mexican television, TIM and Telesistema Mexicano, broke out. TIM presented its new, groundbreaking formats and new faces such asRoberto Gómez Bolaños "Chespirito", who had been a scriptwriter for the comic pair "Viruta yCapulina", and was now presenting himself performing characters that later became true Latin American television icons, such asEl Chapulín Colorado andEl Chavo; from this last one, it's been told that viewers colloquially called him as "El Chavo del 8" for the channel in which it aired. Room was given to other comic artists such asLos Polivoces. Following the concept of the railroad programs, presenterRaúl Velasco, in hisDomingos Espectaculares program, became one of Mexico's most famous television presenters with his programs running for several hours, where national and international artists were presented and new artists were revealed, such as comedianMaría Elena Velasco, La India María. Using its film studios, iconic productions were created, and thanks to an agreement with a company with Peruvian capitals,Panamericana Televisión de México, TIM's productions are exported to other countries in the region and, in an exclusive manner, broadcast the Peruvian adaptation ofSimplemente María, which became a standard for the genre.^[8]

Telesistema Mexicano began to lose, not only in ratings and money, but also strong advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and even key figures who were vital to the Azcárraga company, likeLuis de Llano Palmer, who produced the successful gameshowJuan Pirulero for Canal 8. Nevertheless, the program was criticized from its beginning, as the opinion of some viewers denigrated the public in the nature of its games that had as a prize, most of the time, small appliances such as blenders or irons.^[9] On the other side, Telesistema Mexicano managed to obtain Raúl Velasco, taking the advantage that the presenter parted from TIM when the network decided to change the format of his show. His new show,Siempre en domingo, continued in the same format asDomingos Espectaculares.

Even with the growing success of TIM, losses began to increase at both television companies, due to taxes and government fees on the television stations and other business factors.Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, son of the founder of Telesistema Mexicano, began secret talks with Bernardo Garza Sada to create a conglomerate that benefitted both companies to avoid more losses. On the other hand, and despite the company's economic situation,Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta refused to have a partnership with its biggest competitor. On September 23, 1972, Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta died. The merger process of TIM and Telesistema Mexicano finally began. After convincing the government of Luis Echeverría, the merger of the two television companies was approved, signing on November 28, 1972 the agreement that gave rise to the new television company, which would be 75% integrated by Telesistema Mexicano and 25% by Independent Television of Mexico. Thus, on January 8, 1973, the new company called 'Televisión Vía Satélite, S.A.' was formally initiated. de C.V., a business later and better known asTelevisa.^[9]

The XHTM-based television network was slowly dismantled, with the transmitters being used to broadcast Televisa's other national networks.

In 1985, the Mexican government sought to build a channel 7 in Mexico City under the auspices ofImevisión, which was given the callsignXHIMT-TV. In order to facilitate the additional station, a frequency and callsign change was conducted involving XHTM and Televisa's XEQ-TV channel 9 in Puebla. The end result was that the Mexico City station becameXEQ-TV, channel 9. Meanwhile, XEX-TV channel 7 moved to channel 8, while the Puebla XEQ becameXHTM-TV, a rebroadcaster of XEW-TV located on channel 10. XEQ was primarily available in Mexico City until Televisa received approval in 1993 to extend its reach with 62 new transmitters.

Significant competition in Mexican television would not return until the 1990s and the privatization of Imevisión into a new company,Televisión Azteca, which inherited Imevisión's channels 7 and 13.

• Television networks in Mexico
• Televisa
• Mass media companies established in 1965
• Mass media companies disestablished in 1973
• 1973 mergers and acquisitions
• 1973 disestablishments in Mexico

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata