KFSF-DT

UniMás TV station in Vallejo, California

KFSF DT (channel 66) is a television station licensed to Vallejo, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish language UniMás network to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside San Francisco–licensed Univision outlet KDTV DT (channel 14). The two stations share studios on Zanker Road near the North San Jose Innovation District in San Jose; KFSF DT's transmitter is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco.

The station first signed on the air on November 25, 1986, as KPST TV. Founded by Millbrae based Pan Pacific Television Inc., it originally maintained a part time independent station format, consisting of a three hour block of Mandarin language programming during prime time each night and programming from the Home Shopping Network (HSN) filling the remaining 20 hours of its daily schedule. However, from the start, other companies competed for the Channel 66 license, even after Pan Pacific Television was awarded it by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The most fervent competitor was Silver King Broadcasting, the broadcasting arm of HSN, which vied for the license for ten years after the station's sign on. Shortly before KPST made its formal debut, Silver King announced that it would acquire the license. The deal was stalled for years until alleged improprieties by Pan Pacific cracked open the door for Silver King to try and take over the license. In 1989, the FCC opened an investigation into Pan Pacific Television over allegations that it intentionally declined to disclose its ownership by Chinese investors on its application, in violation of agency rules restricting foreign companies from maintaining an ownership interest in an American broadcast television or radio property higher than 25%. Silver King's involvement in the deal gave the company an additional television station property as Diller had earlier announced on November 27, 1995, that he would acquire the Home Shopping Network and Silver King Broadcasting, which owned HSN affiliated stations in several other larger media markets. Two years later in 1997, Silver King purchased the USA Network and renamed its broadcast television subsidiary as USA Broadcasting, as part of a corporate rebranding borrowing from the identity of its new cable channel property. In June 1998, USA Broadcasting launched a customized independent station format, "CityVision", which infused syndicated programming—including a few produced by sister production unit Studios USA that also aired nationally on USA Network—with a limited amount of local entertainment and magazine programs (reminiscent of the format used by CITY TV in Toronto and more prominently, that station's sister broadcast television properties that became charter stations of Citytv, when CHUM Limited expanded the format to other Canadian markets as a television system in 2002). At the time the concept formally launched on Miami sister station WAMI TV in September of that year (later expanding to sister stations WHOT TV [now WUVG DT] in Atlanta, KHSX TV [now KSTR DT] in Dallas–Fort Worth and WHUB TV [now WUTF DT] in Boston), USA Broadcasting had not announced plans for KPST to switch to adopt the format.

In the summer of 2000, USA Networks announced that it would sell its television station group, in order to focus on its cable network and television production properties. Among the prospective buyers for the USA Broadcasting unit was The Walt Disney Company—which had acquired ABC in 1996—which was the original frontrunner to purchase the thirteen station group (had Disney been successful in acquiring the station, such a deal would have made KPST a sister station to KGO TV (channel 7), one of ABC's five original owned and operated stations). However, Spanish language broadcaster Univision Communications beat out Disney and the competing bidders in a close race, securing a deal to purchase the USA Broadcasting stations for $1.1 billion on December 7, 2000. But because of the station's joint ownership structure, Whitehead and USA Networks had to sell their respective stakes in KPST to Univision; USA sold its 49% minority interest in the station for $37 million, while Whitehead sold his 51% share for $42 million. The sale to Univision faced opposition from a coalition of Bay Area residents of Chinese origin and San Francisco city supervisor Leland Yee, who each filed a complaint to the FCC over the sale. The FCC chose to approve the Univision acquisition, effectively allowing KPST to form a duopoly with Univision owned and operated station KDTV (channel 14). The week prior to the sale's completion, on May 15, 2001, Univision Communications announced during its upfront presentation that it would launch a secondary television network—later announced to be named TeleFutura (the forerunner of UniMás) on July 31—that would compete with Univision, Telemundo and the then recently launched Azteca América. Univision would utilize the former USA Broadcasting stations to serve as charter outlets of the network, which would cater to bilingual Latinos and young adult males between the ages 18 and 34 that seldom watch Spanish language television other than sporting events. Univision, however, continued to maintain English language programming formats on the nine HSN affiliates and four independent stations it acquired from USA Networks for fourteen months following the completion of the purchase, with KPST continuing to air HSN and Mandarin language programming. Channel 66 officially converted into a Spanish language station on January 14, 2002, when it became an owned and operated station of TeleFutura, which initially launched on that date on 18 Univision owned stations (including eleven of its large market sister stations under USA Broadcasting ownership); the station accordingly changed its call letters to KFSF (for "Telefutura San Francisco") on that date. On December 3, 2012, Univision Communications announced that it would relaunch TeleFutura as UniMás—which loosely translates to "Univision Plus", to underline its ties to its parent network Univision—refocusing its programming to appeal towards Latino males between the ages of 12 and 35 years old. The rebranding took place on January 7, 2013.

KFSF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 66, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre transition UHF channel 34, using virtual channel 66.