WFTT-TV

WFTT-TV, virtual channel 62 (UHF digital channel 25), is a UniMás-affiliated television station serving Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, United States that is licensed to Venice. The station is owned by Entravision Communications, which also operates Tampa-licensed Univision-owned station WVEA-TV (channel 50) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the Univision Local Media subsidiary of Univision Communications. The two stations share studios on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa (in a former Barnett Bank building west of Armenia Avenue); WFTT's transmitter is located in Riverview. On cable, the station is available on Charter Spectrum channel 5 throughout the Tampa Bay area, and on Comcast Xfinity channel 23 in Sarasota County.

Not to be confused with WFFT-TV.

WFTT-TV
Venice/Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida
United States
CityVenice, Florida
ChannelsDigital: 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 62 (PSIP)
BrandingUniMás Tampa
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerEntravision Communications
(Entravision Holdings, LLC)
Sister stationsWVEA-TV
History
First air date1988 (1988)[2]
Former call signs
  • WBHS (1988–1992)
  • WBHS-TV (1992–2001)
  • WFTT (2001–2003)
  • WFTT-TV (2004–2009)
  • WFTT-DT (2009–2017)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 50 (UHF, 1988–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 47 (UHF, until 2017)
  • Virtual:
  • 50 (PSIP, until 2017)
Former affiliations
  • HSN (1988–2002)
  • TeleFutura (2002–2013)
Call sign meaningTeleFuTura Tampa
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID16788
ERP750 kW
HAAT472 m (1,549 ft)
Transmitter coordinates27°49′10.8″N 82°15′38″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
WebsiteUniMás

History
For the history of the channel 62 allocation prior to 2017, see WVEA-TV.

The station first signed on the air in 1988 as WBHS on channel 50 (a "-TV" suffix was added to the call letters in 1992), serving as the flagship station of the Home Shopping Network. The station was originally by HSN's broadcasting arm Silver King Broadcasting. HSN programming was supplemented with locally produced public affairs and human interest briefs for 4½ minutes each hour, which exceeded the number of hours independent stations were required to provide local programming (over 12 broadcast hours a week, counting repeats). The Sunday schedule was devoted to children's programming, including 1970s shows such as New Zoo Revue, to expose them to a younger audience.

Former WFTT logo, used from 2002 to 2013.

In 1996, Barry Diller acquired the Home Shopping Network; two years later, HSN acquired USA Networks and renamed the broadcasting group as USA Broadcasting. Plans emerged in the late 1990s to convert WBHS-TV into a general entertainment independent station by 2002, mirroring the local programming-infused format that was already adopted by its stations in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami; however, USA Broadcasting (owned by USA Networks) decided to sell its television stations in 2000, before any plans to change the station's format were made. The Walt Disney Company made a bid to acquire the group (which could have made a partnership with Scripps-owned WFTS-TV, which recently just became the new ABC affiliate for Tampa Bay over 5 years ago at the time), but was outbid by Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications. WBHS-TV remained with HSN until January 14, 2002, when it became a charter owned-and-operated station of Univision's secondary network TeleFutura (which was renamed UniMás in January 2013) and changed its call letters to WFTT.

On December 4, 2017, as part of a channel swap made by Entravision Communications, WFTT and sister station WVEA swapped channel numbers, with WFTT moving to digital channel 25 and virtual channel 62.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[1]
62.11080i16:9WFTT-DTMain WFTT-TV programming / UniMás
62.2480i4:3LATVLATV
62.3COMETComet
62.4CHARGE!Charge!

Analog-to-digital conversion

WFTT-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 50, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[3] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 47, using PSIP to display WFTT-TV's virtual channel as 50 on digital television receivers.

gollark: It also turns out they have a very permissive character set.
gollark: Yes. Yes it is.
gollark: And then apparently entirely mucked up security.
gollark: I really wonder who thought it was a good and useful idea to make a website where you could share your pronouns and follow other people's pronouns or whatever.
gollark: No.

References
  1. "Digital TV Market Listing for WFTT". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  2. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says February 1, while the Television and Cable Factbook says March 1.
  3. List of Digital Full-Power Stations
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