Canal Sur ('South Channel') is part of

Radio y Televisión de Andalucía Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA) is the public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster of the Spanish Autonomous Community of Andalusia. About RTVA Radio y Television de Andalucia (RTVA) is a provider of radio and TV ...

(RTVA), the

public broadcasting Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

company of

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. It was created by means of the devolved powers given to this autononomous community by an Act of Parliament in its statute of autonomy. Canal Sur consists of two signs, Canal Sur 1 and

Canal Sur 2 Canal Sur 2 is the second public television channel from Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA). It began broadcasting on 5 June 1998, under the name ''Canal 2 Andalucía''. With the launch of ''Canal 2 Andalucía'', RTVA had to split its te ...

, broadcasting the same programming but in sign language and with subtitles.

History

On 28 February 1989 Canal Sur 1 TV was launched as the public broadcaster of the Autonomous Community of Andalucía. This means that it was funded by the regional government of Andalusia. Becoming the fourth Spanish autonomous community to have its own public TV channel after Basque Country,

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

and Galicia. In its origins, Canal Sur broadcast programming of all kinds, including news, entertainment, cultural, sports and children's content. Canal Sur was launched with the aim of disseminating Andalusian culture, politics and values among its population and to have an alternative to the monopoly that TVE held at that time. Between 1988 and 1990 there was a campaign to promote the broadcast of Canal Sur in Catalonia due to the large amount of Andalusian population present in that community, as part of the project legislation was sought so that all Spanish regional television could be tuned in throughout the national territory, however, finally the proposal was undone. Canal 2 Andalucía, later

, was founded in 1998. This new channel began to broadcast cultural, children's and sports programming, so Canal Sur became a channel dedicated mainly to information and entertainment programs. On 1 October 2012 Canal Sur 2 was closed, so the programming of both channels was merged. After this date, the same programming was broadcast on the second channel as on Canal Sur, but adapted to the disabled audience, so subtitles, audio description and sign language services were added. In February 2010, Canal Sur HD broadcast tests began, beginning its regular broadcasts on 30 September 2013. The HD version of Canal Sur was closed on 28 February 2015 to make way for

Andalucía Televisión Andalucía Televisión, formerly known as Canal Sur HD is the first High Definition TV channel by Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA). It offers an educational schedule and news which complement the main channel, Canal Sur Televisión. ...

, a complementary channel intended for to fill the vacancy left by the closure of Canal Sur 2. On 16 September 2016 the HD signal was recovered using a different channel. In 2017, Canal Sur 4K broadcasts began, but limited to

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

and its neighboring area. Canal Sur faced an important change in 2019, when the

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

was evicted from the Government of Andalusia by a government coalition between the PP and

Ciudadanos Citizens (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ; shortened as Cs—C's until January 2017), officially Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (''Ciudadanos–Partido de la Ciudadanía'', CS), is a Liberalism, liberal List of political parties in Spain, politi ...

, which led to changes in the channel's administration and editorial line.

Programming

Canal Sur's programming is based on broadcasting news and entertainment. In the first case, the informative programs and some debates stand out. While entertainment stands out for the dissemination of magazine programs, contests, musicals, cooking programs and dissemination of Andalusian culture. The programming is also complemented with movies and series.

Critics

The

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) was in power in the region between Spain regained democracy and 2019. As they controlled the Andalusian Autonomous Government (

Junta de Andalucía The Regional Government of Andalusia () is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Regional Government and the Government Council. The 2011 budget was 31.7 billion euros. It emp ...

) many people have accused the regional government of transforming the channel into the mouthpiece of their party. Canal Sur's news broadcasts often expressed views critical of Mariano Rajoy (who was Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018), and his party, the People's Party (PP). After the change of government from the PSOE to one between the People's Party (PP) and

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

(C's), Canal Sur was accused of disseminating biased information to benefit the PP, in addition to placing journalists with ideologies related to the ruling parties, the channel was accused of hiding information that was detrimental to the interests of the PP, including legal convictions against the party.

References

External links

Official Site

La Junta Electoral da la razón al PP-A: Canal Sur no es neutralLa Junta Electoral amonesta a Canal Sur por falta de neutralidad
Radio y Televisión de Andalucía Television channels and stations established in 1989 Spanish-language television stations {{spain-tv-station-stub