| Callsign: | KNIC-DT |
| City: | Blanco, Texas |
| Branding: | UniMás 17 |
| Digital: | 18 (UHF) |
| Virtual: | 17 |
| Translators: | KCOR-CD 34 (27 UHF) San Antonio |
| Owner: | TelevisaUnivision |
| Licensee: | UniMas Partnership San Antonio |
| Location: | Blanco–San Antonio, Texas |
| Country: | United States |
| Founded: | July 13, 2005 |
| Callsign Meaning: | Nicolas Communications (former owner of former station on channel 17, KNIC-CD) |
| Former Callsigns: | KNIC-TV (2006–2009) |
| Erp: | 1,000 kW |
| Haat: | 2000NaN0 |
| Facility Id: | 125710 |
| Coordinates: | 29.6967°N -98.5125°W |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
| Website: | UniMás |
KNIC-DT (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Blanco, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the San Antonio area. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Univision outlet KWEX-DT (channel 41). The two stations share studios on Network Boulevard in Northwest San Antonio; KNIC's transmitter is located on Hogan Drive in Timberwood Park. Although Blanco is geographically within the Austin market, that city has its own UniMás station, KTFO-CD.
KNIC-DT's history traces back to the March 1991 sign-on of K17BY, a low-power television station that San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) was issued a construction permit to build on March 23, 1988; operating on UHF channel 17, Clear Channel sold the station in March 1991 to Nicolas Communications. In November 1997, the station changed its calls to KNIC-LP (in reference to its owners); Nicolas Communications sold KNIC-CA in November 2001 (the station received approval to upgrade its license to Class A status that same month) to Univision Communications, a sale that was completed in January 2002; that month, it became a charter affiliate of Univision's secondary network, TeleFutura (which relaunched as UniMás on January 7, 2013).
Univision had applied for a license to build a full-power television station in 2000 on UHF channel 52 in Blanco; after the Federal Communications Commission awarded Univision the license at auction, Univision requested that the FCC move the allocation to UHF channel 17; the request was granted in February 2003.[1] KNIC-TV was founded on July 13, 2005. The formal application for KNIC-TV called for Univision to either move KNIC-CA to another channel, or to shut it down outright,[2] KNIC-CA moved to channel 34 under special temporary authorization, before it ceased operations on September 28, 2006; its license survives as KCOR-CD, a translator of KNIC-DT. KNIC-DT was one of the few television stations to have been built and signed on by Univision Communications.
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| 17.1 | KNIC-DT | UniMás | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KWEX-DT | Univision (KWEX-DT) | ||||
| 17.3 | MYSTERY | Ion Mystery | |||
| 17.4 | NVSN | Nuestra Visión | |||
| 17.5 | SHOP LC | Shop LC | |||
| 12.5 | 480i | 16:9 | StartTV | Start TV (KSAT-TV) |
Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/chanplan.html, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. KNIC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009. The station "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 18,[4] using virtual channel 17.