How Canal 22 Fosters Cultural Exchange and National Dialogue

Mexico's Cultural Channel adds international series, special broadcasts of the best cultural events, opinion programs and national and international films. It has been the television headquarters of the most important festivals in the country. Mx Nuestro Cine, the channel for national and Ibero-American cinema, celebrates its first year on the air.

Canal 22, an institution of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, closes the year reaffirming its commitment to audiences, through its three signals, as a public medium that disseminates culture in all its manifestations.

This, from historical and political memory, as in the case of the special programming A 50 años del Golpe de Estado en Chile, which took place in September; or the visibility of cultural agents with the transmissions of ORIGINAL Encuentro de Arte Textil Mexicano, which in 2023 brought together for the third time the artisanal work of the native peoples of Mexico, and Tengo un sueño. A great event of Community Culture, which for the past four years has presented the talent of girls, boys and young people from the Creative Seedbeds from all over the country.

Similarly, the television stations yearly coverage of the Cervantino International Festival and the Guadalajara International Book Fair, as well as the broadcasting of the Ariel Awards Ceremony and the Guelaguetza. These events are related to the cultivation of the artistic, literary, cinematographic and festive traditions of national culture.

Canal 22s signals reach well over 66 million potential viewers every month. Its production amounts to an average of 60 of its creations per month, among which the emblematic programs Tratos y retratos, La dichosa palabra and La oveja eléctrica, appreciated by viewers, stand out. As well as the most recent productions, such as Catarsis 22, a multiplatform program on current trends; Cultura al derecho, which links the legislative discipline with popular culture; Se dice por ahí, Canal 22's audience advocacy program; or the most recent, Ven acá, which explores the diversity of popular music genres; all of these add to the diversity and plurality of views of cultural television.

Within the programming of the 22.1 signal, the premieres of the German and English historical dramas Charlemagne and The Medici: Masters of Florence, respectively, stood out. And thanks to a close collaboration with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Canal 22 showed the work of its specialists in the series En lo profundo de México. As well as the majesty of Mesoamerican cultures through the documentary Santuarios del infinito. Director Francisco Laresgoiti took aerial shots of archaeological sites such as Chichén Itzá, Teotihuacan and Paquimé, accompanied by the voice of Lila Downs.

In 2023, special programs were offered through the three television signals to commemorate International Women's Day, International Mother Language Day, LGBTQ+ Pride Month, the National Day of Mexican Cinema, and the 16 days of activism against gender violence, among others.

On the other hand, various ceremonies of the Presidency of the Republic were broadcast live, both on screen and on social networks. Such as the 161st Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, the 85th anniversary of the oil expropriation, the 4th Anniversary of the National Guard or the Bicentennial of the Heroic Military College, among others.

In addition, within the programming, special programs were prepared to commemorate outstanding personalities of national culture such as Dolores Castro, Ignacio López Tarso, Elena Poniatowska, Fernando de Fuentes, Luis Buñuel or María Rojo, to mention a few.

Similarly, Canal 22 has consolidated its position as a virtual venue for various festivals such as FICUNAM, the Muestra de Cine en Defensa del Territorio y del Agua, Cine hecho en Jalisco, to commemorate the states bicentennial. Other festivals include Festival Mix, Shorts México, DocsMX, Macabro, the Morelia International Film Festival, Ambulante, the French Film Tour and the Morelia Music Festival.

The ¡Clic-Clac! bar celebrated its 12th anniversary, its programming includes a wide variety of formats, genres and aesthetics, with intelligent content that has the capacity to inspire, stimulate, inform, entertain, amuse and challenge children's audiences. Arqueólogos en apuros, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, through INAH, stands out. Likewise, Clic-Clac! consolidates its position as the television venue for the International Children's Film Festival (... and not so Children), organized every year by the children's film association La Matatena A. C.

Since 2007, Canal 22 broadcasts via streaming through its website and since 2009 has been present in the main social networks to build new bridges of communication and strengthen ties with its audiences.

In 2023, Canal 22 has beyond 3 million subscribers to its official accounts on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Instagram, while its web pages have one million visits per year. In this regard, it is worth mentioning Gaceta Veintidós, the TV station's cultural supplement. Since 2009, it is a digital space different from the screen that also seeks to disseminate the most diverse artistic and cultural manifestations, as well as the TV station's programming.

The channel MX Nuestro Cine, of signal 22.2, is the result of the alliance between Canal 22 and the Mexican Institute of Cinematography. In addition to the generous participation of producers and distributors, filmmakers, institutions, schools and festivals that have contributed national and Latin American films to make up its programming. Thanks to these alliances, 475 feature films and 1,014 short films have been brought to homes. One year after its creation, MX Nuestro Cine reaches an audience of 2.5 million people per week.

Canal 22 Internacional, which in 2024 will celebrate 20 years of bringing the signal of the Mexican Cultural Channel to the Spanish-speaking public in the United States, premiered the capsules Nature Speaks to Us, a production of the organization Conservation International. The capsules are narrated by figures such as Rubén Blades, Salma Hayek, Carlos Vives, Catalina Garca, among others.

And thanks to its alliance with the Buñuel-Calanda International Film Festival, the Festival de Cine de Barrio, the performing arts video platform Teatrix and the production company Cine Caníbal, among other international cultural institutions and organizations, Canal 22 Internacional has added to its programming offer contents that strengthen the cultural identity of Canal 22 Internacional in the audience, as a window to Mexico and Latin America, and as a place of cultural encounter and exchange at a multinational level.

For its part, Noticias 22 integrated the trans community into the national television discourse with an objective and respectful approach through the series Transcultura. This strengthens the programming offer of the news agency of Mexico's Cultural Channel, whose production stands out for programs such as Debate 22 and Con la X en la frente; in addition to the only cultural newscast in Mexico, Noticias 22, which reaches an audience of 22 million viewers.

In 2023, Chamuco TV, a co-production of Canal 22, TV UNAM and Canal Once, won the National Journalism Award. It has an annual audience of 8 million viewers. As public media, starting in the second half of the year, Canal 22 broadcasts the morning press conference from the National Palace, which has a weekly audience of 700 thousand viewers.

The television station's commitment to offer a different view of the country's current context has been recognized for the fifth time by the Reuters Institute, which placed Canal 22 among the most reliable media in Mexico. Thus, in June, Canal Cultural de México celebrated three decades of existence. Thanks to the important work of all the people who work to make it possible for culture to be seen everywhere, from the production and operational departments to the administrative ones.