Visión

Visión is a Mexican TV network founded by the members of the Asociación Mexicana de Telecomunicaciones in late 1986, it is based in Querétaro. Visión keeps itself as the leading network in family programming, an alternative on free-to-air television, where none gossip shows, talk-shows, dull entertainment programs and telenovelas that Mexican television offers today are shown. 
==History==
=== 1980s: The beginning ===
The history of the network dates back to October 1986, when some workers from Imevision, then the Mexican state-owned television and some small broadcasting companies from all around the country met in the city of Querétaro, led by journalist Gabriel Mier y Terán, supported by fellow reporters Abraham Carreño, Julio César Mendoza, Esteban Salido and Ana Mares, allying themselves with independent stations owned by Monterrey businessman Carlos Bremer, they created a new company called Asociación Mexicana de Telecomunicaciones and they took a new direction, deciding to open a new television channel within a period of no more than six months. 
On October 28, 1986, the first broadcasts of the channel, named T3M Tele México started with a programming consisting purely of classic mexican programs. A news program with three editions a day, classic american TV series like The Twilight Zone and variety programs. Mexican Baseball League games in the weekends and mexican movies from the 50-70's. 
T3M was made up of a network of formerly Televisión del Norte, S.A, Telecadena Mexicana owned and operated stations in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, León, San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Veracruz and the flagship XHMXO-TV channel 10 in Santiago de Querétaro, which offered half-hour local newscasts that are still operative. In 1987 the network just reached 10% of Mexican territory. And the rest via-satellite.
=== The 1990s: The start of success ===
In 1992 programming was revamped with more modern series, North American and Japanese cartoons, news and programming of its own production, the reach of the channel continued to grow at the beginning of the 1990s, the network started offering Mexican First Division soccer matches from the Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl team, the flamboyant looks of the players, who often entered the pitch wearing Halloween masks and red dyed hair gave the network great ratings and the team turned into a 90's decade symbol in Mexico. Atlético Celaya from the state of Guanajuato was promoted to the league in 1994 and Channel 3 secured its TV rights. The Toros, as they were nicknamed, made shocking signings like that of former Real Madrid star Emilio Butragueño, obviously, the presence of such famed players boosted the channel's assets. Unfortunately. Neza was relegated in 2000 and Celaya moved to Cuernavaca in early 2003 with the new owners terminating the contract with the channel in favor of bigger TV Azteca network. Meeting great success after the broadcast of the Olympic Games and the Winter Olympics since 1988, and Central American and Caribbean Games in 1990. The Panamerican Games 1991, the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and in 1993 their first Copa América in Ecuador (ceased in 2016 when Mexican national team stopped its participation) since the 1994-95 season the channel has offered uninterruptedly the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup, now Europa League. In 1994, the network carried its first FIFA World Cup in the United States, and the CONCACAF Gold Cup since 1993 (rights terminated in 2017 after a dispute between the Confederation and the society that owns the channel), the Confederations Cup since 1995 with the broadcasting of Mexico's victory at home in the 1999 edition, and since 1996 the UEFA European Football Championship, popularly known as the Euro. 
On June 16, 1994 the network was renamed CTV3, when the channel started its broadcasts via satellite through affiliates throughout the country, increasing its coverage reaching more cities and through satellite dishes all of Mexico. June 1, 1996, on the brink of the new millennium, the network revealed its new branding as Visión 2000. 
=== The 2000s: The Golden Era ===
By the 2000s decade Visión established itself as a family friendly channel due to the arrival of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Canadian YTV animated series, and the full rerun of the anime series Sailor Moon previously aired on Canal 7 of TV Azteca. in addition to the arrival of successful American productions like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Friends, Mad About You, Seinfeld, Walker: Texas Ranger, Xena: Warrior Princess and The X-Files that helped the network to compete even with telenovelas from the bigger networks Televisa and Azteca, mainly due to their unpopularity between young people, that were also entertained with live music performances from rock and pop foreign artists of the moment. 
In December 31, 2001 the network was renamed TV3 and carried more shows acquired by broadcasting rights from international programmers like BBC, UPN and The WB. In June 2004 the final episode of Friends (The Last One: Parts 1 & 2) held the record for the most watched broadcast on the network's history until 2022.
In 2004, after a long wait, TV3 secured the rights to broadcast NFL Sunday afternoon games exclusively for ten years, the ABC Monday Night Football and the ESPN Sunday Night Football for their final two seasons. The latter coverage included the historic regular season game at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals on October 2, 2005, the first ever NFL regular season game played outside the United States.
=== The 2010s: New technology ===
 
During this decade, TV3 explored new technology by launching its signal in High Definition in Mexico City and the channel established partnerships with film and television producers for the broadcast of some programs, making it the long-time home of the British teen drama Skins and other series from the United Kingdom like the newer series of Doctor Who. In 2010, the network started producing its own series and ceased the acquisition of foreign series until 2012, when series from The CW Network like Reign and hit Canadian science fiction show Orphan Black appeared on the chart and fared well with ratings. TV3 broadcasted an historic moment for Mexican sports when the Men's U23 national soccer team obtained the gold medal at the Olympics in London on August 11 after defeating Brazil 2-1 at Wembley Stadium. Two weeks later, in the night of Saturday August 25, 2012. TV3 premiered the anime series Renewal of Evangelion, the most watched premiere of any show in the channel's history.
After offering the newly re-created Mexican Soccer Cup tournament marked the return of national club football to the channel. In September 11, 2013. Mexican national basketball team obtained the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship a game shown exclusively on TV3 in the middle of a crisis for the national soccer team, that narrowly escaped elimination from the World Cup in Brazil a month later after losing in Costa Rica. TV3's commentators openly cheered on the United States team when the qualification of Mexico to the Intercontinental playoff against New Zealand was now depending on an American victory against the Panama national team, and it happened on injury time. 
The network didn't featured coverage of the Mexican League again until 2014-15 for the University of Guadalajara recently promoted team, that was narrowly relegated at the end of the season, and 2017-2021 for teams like Lobos, Atlas and Santos.
During 2015, TV3 set a record for its own made fiction when millions of people tuned in the night of June 3 to watch the series finale of El Imperio, later that year fully transitioned to Terrestrial Digital Television, and partially recovered the Visión moniker of the 90s in 2016, when the Mexican fictional television authorities awarded channel 44.1 to the network. 
After the earthquake that hit the central and southern areas of the country on September 19, 2017, an effort was made to offer information and special transmissions 24 hours a day uninterrupted to help the victims. The network put together renowned Mexican and Latin American alternative and indie singers like Beto Cuevas, Daniela Spalla, Javiera Mena, Marciano Cantero or Ximena Sariñana to cover the song Adelante by Naiara for a resilience and unity message, and they played for free in Querétaro on a charity concert organized by the network to raise funds to build new homes and repair damaged ones on the affected areas.
During 2018, Visión began to offer Major League Baseball games and all the details of the great world football festival, the FIFA World Cup in Russia and started broadcasting National Football League's Thursday Night Football. Partially due to its weekly Sunday afternoon game coverage being directly affected and halted by the decision of Lobos, the only Mexican Soccer League side that the network carried, to move their home matches from Saturdays to Sundays for the 2018-19 soccer season.
In 2019, the network underwent changes within its children's programming, leaving the traditional slots from Monday to Friday, with the arrival of classic and modern animated series on its Saturday and Sunday morning programming only. Sunday afternoon NFL coverage came back to the channel for at least one more year. 
=== 2020s: Pandemic and recovery begins ===
After rival TV Azteca dropped its National Football League regular season coverage. Visión swapped the NFL Sunday afternoon contest for one Sunday noon game starting from the 2020 season week 1 with a game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. 
Visión aired Playoff games for the first time ever that season, because Azteca also gave up most of its NFL Playoff coverage. This included two AFC Wild Card Games (Indianapolis Colts vs. Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens vs. Tennessee Titans) one Divisional game (Cleveland Browns vs. Kansas City Chiefs) and the AFC Conference final. 
2020, however, was a tragic year for the network and the entire world due to the coronavirus pandemic. But since 2021, the commitment of the channel is the presentation of new faces to the channel like humorist Alfonso Gutiérrez (El Intermedio), Claudia Lizaldi (Mexico Directo), Edgar Smolensky (Así Nos Va), Uruguayan sports commentator Jorge Ramos (Champions League and Europa League matches), Maggie Hegyi (Pirámide), María Roíz (Vidas Anónimas), Montserrat Ontiveros (Mastermind) and Vica Andrade (Arriba y De Buenas)
On the fiction department. Channel 44 brought American, European and self-produced Mexican original live-action series. Western animation and anime, both classic and modern, to its chart, with highlights like the first broadcasting of a yuri anime in Mexican network television with the premiere of the Spanish dub of Kannazuki no Miko in October 2021, and the premiere of both parts of the Sailor Moon Eternal movie on Christmas Eve, that marked the most watched program in the network that year. Visión also relaunched classic successful shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. 
The 2022 UEFA Champions League Final between English club Liverpool and Spanish club Real Madrid on May 28th broke a new record for the most watched event in Visión's history. The match was called by Jorge Ramos along legendary Mexican sportcasters Adán Vega Baraja and Emilio Fernando Alonso, the analysts were Virginia Tovar, the first female referee to ever officiate a Mexican League match, and 2006 World Cup Champion Mauro Camoranesi. Live from Stade de France in Saint-Denis. The same crew of the UCL Final repeated at the FIFA World Cup final on December 18, with the exception of Camoranesi being replaced by Omar Zerón.
In October 2022, the network exclusively aired the World Series on free-to-air Mexican television, an unprecedented event because that was the first time since 1963 that rival real media giant Televisa stopped broadcasting Major League Baseball. Games 6, 1 and 2 between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros came second, third and fourth respectively as the most watched events of the year for the channel.
As for the NFL coverage that year, the most tuned-in games of the season were a Saturday night contest between Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills on December 17. The first TNF of the season (Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs on September 15, Mexican Independence Day) and coincidentally the last one (Dallas Cowboys vs. Tennessee Titans on December 30), as well as the Christmas sunday noon game when the Green Bay Packers took on the Miami Dolphins.
In 2023, the final episode of La Cazadora established a new record for the most watched nationally produced fiction program for the network on September 3. While the most watched events were the UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester City and Inter Milan on June 10 and the Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between Texas Rangers and Houston Astros in October 23.
==Current programming==
Today the network broadcasts anime, cartoons, movies (American, japanese or european productions) in the Saturday and Sunday afternoons, self-produced newscasts, drama and comedy series, a variety of sports like basketball, baseball, football, and international soccer, the Summer and Winter Olympics, etc.
===Original animated series (Produced by G-Box Animation)===
* Academia Kite Wars
* Kite Wars
*El Corazón de la Bruja
===Original drama series===
* Dolores del Rio: Original drama series. 
*
===Original comedy series===
*A Colores
*Medio Tiempo de Parodia
===News programming===
*Daily (Noticontacto) news program with three editions a day.
*Weekly (Equipo de Investigación MX)
*Specialized (Al Grano, a round table debate on national and worldwide topics)
===Reality/documentary series===
* ¿Dónde estabas entonces? Documentary. Mexican version of the Spanish show of the same name.
* El Tiempo No Perdona documentary
* Salvados: Mexican version of the Spanish show of the same name.
* Vidas anónimas: Biographical.
===Special/variety programming===
* Arriba y de buenas: Morning and talk-show.
* Así Nos Va: Humor Magazine.
* Cifras y letras: Game Shows. Mexican version of the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres.
* El Diván: Interviews to Mexican and foreign celebrities.
* El Intermedio: Political humor show. Mexican version of the Spanish show of the same name.
* El Mejor de la Historia: Mexican version of 100 Greatest Britons. Premieres September 15 2024.
*FrikiLeaks: Gadgets, social media and technology.
* Mastermind: Game Shows. Mexican version of the British game show of the same name. 
* México Directo: Variety show 
* Pirámide: Game Shows. Mexican version of the American game show Pyramid.
* Sonambulando: Late Night. 
*Visarts: Mexican arts and culture.
*Wipeout: Mexican version of the American game show. 
* Zapeando: Humorous clip show. Mexican version of the Spanish show of the same name.
===Acquired series (Primetime)===
*Buffy the Vampire Slayer: American TV series.
*Candice Renoir: French TV series.
*Charmed: American TV series.
*Daria: American animated TV series.
*Deadly Tropics: French TV series.
*Einstein: German TV Series.
====Visión Go! (Weekend mornings block)====
*Kenan & Kel
*Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
*The Loud House
*The Really Loud House 
====Anime (Shock Me!)====
Shock Me! starting Saturdays at 11 PM. Its theme song is the eponymous song by Eri Aikawa. Shock Me! is targeted at a mature audience, with subtitled anime (Latin American Spanish dub through Second audio program when available): 
*Kuroko no Basket (Shock Me!)
*School Days (Shock Me!)
=== Sport programs===
*Arena 44: Weekend Nights. Highlights of sports from the weekend.
*Jugones: Sports magazine. Mexican version of the Spanish show of the same name.
*La Panenka: National and international soccer debate. Similar to Spanish show El Chiringuito de Jugones
===Live Sports===
*2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup: All Mexican teams matches. Semifinals and finals.
*Copa del Rey: One match per round plus the final.
*FIBA Basketball World Cup: All Mexican national team games and selected others from top teams.
*FIFA Club World Cup: All Mexican teams matches when involved. Semifinals and finals.
*FIFA U17 World Cup: All Mexican national team matches.
*FIFA U20 World Cup: All Mexican national team matches when involved.
*FIFA U17 Women's World Cup: All Mexican national team matches.
*FIFA U20 Women's World Cup: All Mexican national team matches when involved.
*FIFA World Cup: All Mexican national team games and selected matches.
*Major League Baseball:
**Two games on Saturdays (usually those broadcasted by FOX/FS1)
**Mexico City Series
**All-Star Game
**World Series. Shared with Imagen Televisión.
*National Football League: 
**Thursday Night Football. (and Black Friday Football)
**One Sunday noon game per week.
**Netflix Christmas games in 2024.
**NFL International Series. (London and Munich games in 2024)
**NFL Network games. (Saturday Tripleheader)
**Playoff games when broadcasted by ABC, CBS or Prime.
**Pro Bowl Games.
*NCAA Football: Selected Bowl and Conference championship games.
*Olympic Games
*UEFA Champions League: One match per round on Tuesdays plus the final.
*UEFA Conference League: Final only.
*UEFA Europa League: One match per round on Thursdays plus the final.
*UEFA Euro 2024: selected matches from top teams.
*UEFA Nations League: Final Four only.
*UEFA Super Cup 
*Winter Olympic Games
*World Baseball Classic: All Mexican national team games and selected others.
==Upcoming programming==
*Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card: Anime series. Premieres TBD, 2024.
*My Deer Friend Nokotan: Anime series. Premieres September 6, 2024. (Primetime)
*Ranma ½ (2024): Anime series. Premieres October 5, 2024. (Primetime)
*Princess Jellyfish: Anime series. Premieres September 7, 2024. (Shock Me!)
*Strawberry Panic!: Anime series. Premieres September 7, 2024. (Shock Me!)
*Sugar Sugar Rune: Anime series. Premieres September 6, 2024. (Visión Go!)
*Totally Spies!: Season 7. Premieres September 15, 2024. (Visión Go!)
*Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon: Anime series. Premieres TBD, 2024. (Visión Go!)
==Former original series==
#Alta Velocidad (High Speed) (2010): Two racing car drivers, the son (Felipe de Lara) and the daughter (Ximena Sariñana) of old bitter rivals, fall in a forbidden love.
#El Imperio (The Empire) (2010-2015): Sports drama television series produced by Hewland International which chronicled the on-field and off-field affairs of the fictional Mexican League football club Emperadores (Emperors). Focused on the first team and on Rogelio Murillo (Ari Telch), the manager, Maximiliano López (Fidel Garriga) and Carlota Reyes (Leticia Huijara) the owners of Emperadores and Luis Rodriguez (David Chocarro), star striker and soon-to-be lover of Carlota. The end of the series resulted in Emperors winning Liga MX.
#Amuletos (Amulets, 2011) Three ancient amulets had disappeared from a tiny town in the Gulf coast. Four vacationing students Samara, Héctor, Alonso and Paula (Ana Serradilla, Héctor Jiménez, Octavio Castro, Ximena Guerra) will try to find them and to fight a foreign corporation that stole the relics to force the town's people to move to another place, so they can build an enormous luxury beach club and resort over their homes.
#Culpados (Guilty, 2013) A fire in a luxury hotel in Mexico City will start an investigation led by Judge Monica Moreno (Irela de Villers). The main suspect, Fernando Trujillo (Dino García), an important politician, will be involved in a plot of suspicions and secrets
#Carla (2015) Short series about Vicente (Alfonso Herrera) who questions his loyalty to his long time girlfriend Karla Dávila (Eréndira Ibarra) when the mysterious Carla Nayere (Belinda) appears on his life.
#Sin Secretos entre Nosotros (No Secrets Among Us, 2015-.2018) Everyone has a secret to hide...
# Volare: Séptimo cielo (Volare: 7th Heaven, 2015) The show is based around the flight crew of a low budget airline led by Janeth Viramontes (Francesca Guillén) in and out of uniform, in the air and on the ground. The series follows the flight crew as they travel and live in the Mexico City home they share, a mix of drama, love and comedy.
#Fatales (2016): Version of Cinemax's Femme Fatales
#Frida Runaway (2016-on hiatus): Frida Escalante's (Marianne Guereña) story begins when she escapes from a youth detention center, where she was wrongly incarcerated, to pursue her dream of being a rockstar.
#Ojos verdes (Green Eyes, 2016-2018): Adrián and Ariana are two twin brothers who, when they turn 19, face persecution by the Polaris Organization, becy they are wizards.
#La lista roja (The red list, 2018) Version of Lifetime TV series The Client List. Desperate single mother Carolina Velasquez (Gabriela Spanic) takes a job in a massage parlor but soon she discovers the true nature of the place as a brothel.
#Túneles (Tunnels, 2018) Takes place on the U.S. and Mexican border where a murdered body between El Paso and Juárez bring together El Paso detective Sonia Aguilar (Laura Harring) and Chihuahua State police detective Gilberto Ruiz (Demián Bichir).
#Timeless (2018-2020) Mexican Version of spanish TV series El Ministerio del Tiempo.
#Velarde (2021) Biographical series about Mexican poet Ramón López Velarde. (Daniel Holguín)
#Cri-Cri El Grillo Cantor (2022) Biographical series about Mexican composer Francisco Gabilondo Soler (Tony Dalton)
#La Cazadora (2023): Live-action adaptation of the Japanese animation El Cazador de la Bruja starred by María Gabriela de Faria and Tessa Ía.
#Cuarteto (2023): Emma Michel (Simone Bucio) finding herself in trouble, hides and decides to enter the local music school. During her studies, Emma meets three talented girls who become her new friends. Samantha Rivera (Sasha González), first violin, madly devoted to music. Is a high-end call girl, mostly with influential clients, including the Minister of Culture Xavier Castillo. Viola player Sofia Ramírez (Leidi Gutiérrez) suffers from schizophrenia. And Miroslava Sarmiento, second violin (Nancy Talamantes) hides an irresistible urge to steal.
#Dolores del Rio (2024): Original bio drama series starring Elsa Ortiz as the Mexican actress Dolores del Rio.
===Original telenovelas === 
#Sin Entender (Misunderstood, 2010) The story of several immigrants in Mexico who find it hard to learn Spanish, all of them fell in love with their spanish teacher: Olga Patricia (Cassandra Ciangherotti).
#Almas Traicionadas (Betrayed Souls, 2010-2011) Tells the story of four women. Brenda, Geovanna, Nancy and Valeria (Ana de la Reguera, Bianca Marroquín, Rebecca de Alba and Teresa Ruíz) lies and infidelity are the problems they face.
#Creo que no es el (He's not him, 2011) A thriller about Andrea, a woman (Ilse Salas) who suspects that her husband Gustavo has been replaced for an impostor. (Bruno Bichir)
#La Doble Vida (Double Life, 2012) Sofía Ibarra, a young woman (Dominika Paleta) pretends to be her dying sister Paulina (Ludwika Paleta).
#Enemigas (Frenemies, 2012) Elizabeth Quiroz (Isabel Burr) is a middle-class girl, serious, sensible and studious, who can study computer science at a private university because she won a scholarship. There she meets Briseyda Quiñones (María Fernanda Malo) daughter of a millionaire businessman. At first, there will be a lot of friction between them.
==Criticism and controversies==
===Accusations of bias===
Right political parties and civil organisations have criticized that Visión serves as an agenda tool and does not fairly represent different opinions on subjects of society and politics in Mexico. Even newspapers and competing networks accused Visión of favoring the views of the Mexican Government or empathizing with its ideologies. TV Azteca even went as far as calling the channel "A communist propaganda instrument" in August 2, 2023. Visión responded the attack by airing the Daria episode "The Lawndale File" (when unintelligent students of Lawndale High become convinced Daria and Jane are "atomic communists") the following night after a MLB game, to mock the competing network, its staff and audience. 
International observers have noticed these same media outlets have enthusiastically supported Mexican right-wing campaigns, this leads those newspapers and networks, ideologically related to right parties, to try to raise doubts about Visión's actions.
The channel's plurality has been confirmed by neutral international observers as a network that gives neutral and balanced political coverage, giving voice to both pro-government analysts and those opposed to it, unlike other channels which only shows a partial conservative view of the issues. Even to the point of vetoing progressive viewpoints on their programming and networks.
===LGBT+ Themes===
After premiering The Loud House the themes of Luna Loud and Clyde McBride's two fathers homosexuality became controversial in conservative parents. 
In 2021. The channel did not censored a lesbian kiss in the 3rd season of the series Sailor Moon Crystal. Neither did its sister network Mini. 
It wasn't the first time that an anime shown on the channels sparked this kind of controversy. The same franchise, for example, included gay (Kunzite and Zoisite, although the Mexican dub toned it down by making Zoisite a woman) lesbian (Sailor Uranus, who was the author of the aforementioned Crystal kiss, and her girlfriend Sailor Neptune) and transgender (Fisheye and the Sailor Three Lights) characters on its classical 90's series, with a notorious example of a trans character being Aoi Futaba from You're Under Arrest, another anime that the channel used to air on the kids' block without fearing any backlash.
===Conflicts with religious organizations===
Visión also sustained conflicts with religious organizations that had attacked the network for supporting pro-choice viewpoints, promoting LGBT+ rights and exposing corruption within the church, causing pressure from Catholic groups and other moralists. 
During the coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games Visión often cut the performances of Israeli athletes with commercials. This prompted complains from Mexican Jewish communities and the ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger. 
Several organizations has had alleged "heretic, violent and sexual content", within the programming like Buffy, Charmed or many anime series, "Alianza Fuerza Opinión Pública" (AFOP), a Catholic group, "Asociación A Favor de lo Mejor, A.C." and Evangelical churches.
==External links==
Visión at Foromedios wiki.
Category:Fictional television networks
Category:Fictional major networks
Category:Mexican TV Stations
Category:Channel 44
Category:Mexico
Category:1986
Category:Spanish-language television networks