Canal 5

Country	Mexico
Broadcast area	Nationwide
Headquarters	Av Chapultepec 28, Doctores, Cuauhtémoc, 0672Mexico City
Programming
Language(s)	Spanish (English/original audio bySAP)
Picture format	1080iHDTV (downscaled to480i for theSDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	TelevisaUnivision
Sister channels	Las Estrellas Nu9ve Foro
History
Launched	10 May 1952; 71 years ago
Links
Website	televisa.com/canal5
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television (Except Tijuana and Matamoros)	Channel 5.1 (HD)
Digital terrestrial television (Matamoros)	Channel 2.2 (HD)
Digital terrestrial television (Tijuana)	Channel 6.1 (HD)

Canal 5 is a Mexican free-to-airtelevision network owned byTelevisaUnivision. It traces its origins to the foundation of Channel 5 in Mexico City in 1952 (also known by its identification codeXHGC-TDT). Canal 5's program lineup is generally targeted at a younger audience and includes cartoons, foreign series and movies, along with a limited number of sporting events such asNFL games, boxing, theFIFA World Cup and theOlympic Games.

Canal 5 is mainly aimed at children and youth audiences, although in late hours it usually includes a more general concept with television series and reality shows. Over the decades among its programming, it includes many series purchased from networks such asNickelodeon andCartoon Network, among others; while the series aimed at the general public often come fromParamount Network,Fox Broadcasting Company,Warner Bros. (now known asWarner Bros. Discovery),Sony Group Corporation,ViacomCBS (nowParamount Global),MTV,NBCUniversal,Lionsgate,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer among others. The channel also broadcasts series produced by the companyTelevisaUnivision, which owns the channel. In programming, its main national competitor in open television has historically beenAzteca 7 ofTV Azteca.

On May 10, 1952,XHGC-TV came to the air for the first time. It was Mexico City's third television station, owned byGuillermo González Camarena, an inventor who created the first color television system. In 1955, XHGC was one of three stations that formedTelesistema Mexicano. González Camarena remained the general manager of XHGC until his death in 1965.

In 1963, XHGC became the first station in Mexico to broadcast in color. By request of Guillermo González Camarena, XHGC began targeting an audience of children and youth, with the first color telecast beingParaíso infantil (Children's Paradise). Over the years, Canal 5 has retained this programming focus, with a schedule incorporating foreign series and sports programs.

At the end of the 1980s, the then-vice president of Televisa, Alejandro Burillo Azcárraga, spearheaded drastic changes in the branding of the company's television networks. XHGC had branded as Canal 5 for years, using various logos with the number 5. However, as the network's various repeaters were not all on channel 5, the network began branding by the XHGC callsign. The landmarkEnergía Visual (Visual Energy) campaign, designed by Agustín Corona and Pablo Jato, featured idents with wildly varied logos and designs—a first for Mexican television. The campaign was designed to back the channel's youthful image.

In the 1990s, Canal 5 began branding with its channel number again. During this period,Alejandro González Iñárritu, who had also been involved with Televisa's radio stationXEW-FM (WFM), was involved in the creation of some of the network's promotional campaigns. Additionally, in 1994, Televisa obtained a concession for 62 additional television transmitters nationwide, most of which form a key link in the Canal 5 network today.

1999 saw the beginning of a shift in content providers for Canal 5, which had long been the exclusive Mexican rightsholder toDisney programs such asChip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers,DuckTales and a Mexican version ofDisney Club. In 1999, these rights began to migrate to Televisión Azteca andAzteca 7. Instead, the network began relying more on WarnerMedia (including Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network), PBS Kids, Universal, Sony, Fox, and Viacom (including Paramount and Nickelodeon) programs.

Today, Canal 5 carries children's programs, films and international series, as well as sporting events includingUEFA Champions League,UEFA Europa League andFIFA World Cup matches, a limited number ofLiga MX fixtures and international matches involving the Mexico national team, and select NFL and NHL games. Canal 5 also features some of Televisa's productions, such asEl Chavo Animado andMujeres Asesinas 3 by Pedro Torres.

In recent years, Canal 5's Twitter page started posting strange and disturbing posts typically between 3-7 am including theMichael Rosen's Lunchtime song, only to be deleted after said date. Since then, the posts have been investigated and widely shared and talked about in the Mexican media. Infobae México, a Mexican news site, contacted one of the collaborators of Channel 5. However, they claimed they did not know the disturbing posts.^[1]

It is quite possible that the first moderninfomercial series to run in North America was onSan Diego-area television stationXETV, which during the 1970s ran a one-hour program every Sunday consisting of advertisements for local homes for sale. As the station was licensed by the Mexican government to the city ofTijuana, but broadcast all of its programs in English for the U.S. market until 2017 (when it became a pure Spanish-language outlet for Canal 5), the FCC limit at that time of a maximum of 18 minutes of commercials in an hour did not apply to the station.

Canal 5 is carried on 66 of its own transmitters plus another 32 transmitters shared withLas Estrellas and one transmitter that carries a Televisa local service, Las Estrellas and Canal 5; these 31 transmitters do not carry Canal 5 in HD.^[2][3] It holds the rights to virtual channel 5 nationwide and broadcasts on it in almost all areas, with a handful of notable exceptions along the US-Mexico border.

In 2018, the concessions of all primary Canal 5 repeaters wholly owned by Televisa were consolidated in the concessionaire Radio Televisión, S.A. de C.V. as part of a reorganization of Televisa's concessionaires.

• 
  1952-1964
• 
  1980-1986 (similar toChannel 5 honduran logo andKSTP-TV in United States)
• 
  1988-1989
• 
  1993-1994
• 
  1994-1996
• 
  1996-1997
• 
  1997-1999
• 
  1999 (with slight variants until 2007)
• 
  2003-2007
• 
  2007 (with slight modifications until 2013)
• 
  2013
• 
  2013-2014
• 
  2014-2016
• 
  2016-present

• Official website
• Canal 5 atAnime News Network's encyclopedia

• Canal 5 (Mexico)
• Children's television networks
• Mass media in Mexico City
• Television networks in Mexico
• Televisa broadcast television networks
• Television channels and stations established in 1952
• 1951 establishments in Mexico

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