XHLAR-TDT (channel 2) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

Nuevo Laredo Nuevo Laredo () is a city in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Laredo, Texas, Laredo, United States. The 2010 census popula ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

, Mexico. It is owned by

Grupo Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

and carries its

Las Estrellas Las Estrellas () is a Mexican television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. Its first official broadcast took place on 21 March 1951. It airs free-to-air through affiliate stations throughout Mexico, based on XEW-TDT in Mexico City. It is con ...

network. The station's studios and transmitter are located on Avenida de la República in Nuevo Laredo.

History

On 9 March 1994, Radiotelevisora de México Norte, S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Televisa, was authorized to build 62 new stations, including channel 57 in Nuevo Laredo, with the call sign XHNUL-TV. XHNUL and sister XHRTA-TV in

Reynosa Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico which also holds the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAlle ...

, however, did not sign on with Mexican programming. Instead, channel 57 signed on for the first time on 4 September of that same year as XHFTX-TV, broadcasting programming from the

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

network for

Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villag ...

. Prior to XHFTX's sign-on, Laredo viewers received their Fox programs on cable, either from the national

Foxnet Foxnet was a national cable programming service of the Fox Broadcasting Company (known simply as Fox) that was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group division of News Corporation. The service, which operated (in its original form) from June 6, 1991 ...

service or from KRRT in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

. In 2002, XHFTX, along with XHFOX in Reynosa, disaffiliated from Fox, with the station changing its call sign to XHLAR-TV; Fox programming was reportedly replaced on cable with San Antonio's

KABB KABB (channel 29) is a television stationin San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual NBC and CW affiliate WOAI-TV (channel 4); Sinclair also provides certain ...

. It would be about five years before Laredo would get another local Fox affiliate,

KXOF-CA KETF-CD (channel 39) is a low-power, Class A television station in Laredo, Texas, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network UniMás. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongside Univision affiliate KLDO-TV (channel 27) ...

. XHLAR then became Televisa Nuevo Laredo, carrying local programming as well as re-airs of programs from the other Televisa networks, including series from Canal 5 and live sports from

Gala TV Gala TV was a bingo channel in the United Kingdom, launched in 2006 by Gala Bingo. The channel was removed from the satellite lineup in 2011. It continued as an online television channel, and in 2012 was renamed as Gala Live. Gala TV broadca ...

. In February 2013, XHLAR began broadcasting in digital on channel 38.1 (virtual 57.1); it upgraded its signal to 1080i HD in March 2014. In 2018, the concessions of all Las Estrellas stations were consolidated in the concessionaire Televimex, S.A. de C.V., as part of a corporate reorganization of Televisa's concessionaires.

Technical information

XHLAR broadcasts in 1080i HD on virtual channel 2.1. In December 2016, XHLAR was authorized to move from physical channel 38 to 29.Move to RF 29
/ref> It was allowed to begin utilizing virtual channel 2, putting the station in line with the rest of the network, in August 2018.

References

External links

Las Estrellas website
{{English Mexico HLAR-TDT Las Estrellas transmitters Television channels and stations established in 1994