Cuatro (stylized as cuatro°, "Four") is a Spanish

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

that was launched in November 2005. Owned by

Mediaset España Mediaset España (), full name Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A., is a Spanish media company, controlled by the Italian company MFE - MediaForEurope. Its divisions include the generalist free-to-air TV channels Telecinco and Cuatro, thematic ch ...

, the Spanish subsidiary of the Italian

Mediaset Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...

group, it is broadcast on TV frequencies licensed to the previous owner

Sogecable PRISA Televisión, S.A.U (PRISA TV) is a pay TV company in Spain. History and profile PRISA TV was established in 1989 and controlled (as of 2007) by PRISA. It was the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially digital tel ...

in 1990 and previously used by them for the analogue transmission of its pay-per-view channel

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

History

In 2006, Cuatro scored a massive coup by striking a deal with the

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

and Spain's national football team allowing it to show all of the team's matches, and it also concluded an agreement with rival channel

La Sexta La Sexta (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

to share the rights to broadcast the games of general interest in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. It snatched this licence from TVE, who had held the rights to the national team's matches for years. In 2008, together with satellite platform

Digital+ Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

, owned by the same company, Cuatro secured the rights to broadcast the

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

championship, scoring the highest ratings in the history of Spanish television (since 1992). The two broadcasters also achieved rights for

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

Cuatro TV Place de la Concorde Paris P1200375

On 18 December 2009,

, controlling shareholder of Gestevision Telecinco and Promotora de Informaciones, S.A, proprietor of

, presented an agreement to merge their television channels (

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially launc ...

and Cuatro). After the merger, Cuatro and its broadcasting license Sogecable separated, and the company - Sogecuatro - was purchased in full by Gestevision Telecinco. Along with this act, PRISA bought newly issued shares of Gestevision Telecinco, 18% of the equity of this company. This agreement makes Gestevision Telecinco in the largest television network in Spain by audience share. In total the group has a total of seven channels, in Terrestrial Television in Spain:

, Cuatro,

LaSiete LaSiete ''( en, The Seven)'', formerly known as ''Telecinco 2'', was a Spanish digital terrestrial television channel, operated by Mediaset España. It began its broadcasts on 18 February 2008, replacing Telecinco Sport. On 18 May 2009, Telecinco ...

, FactoríaDeFicción,

Boing Boing may refer to: Places * Boing, South Sudan, a town in Upper Nile state on the Yabus River Arts, entertainment, and media Music * "Boing", a song by Ween from the album ''The Pod'' * "Boing!" (song), a 2006 song by Nik & Jay * "Boing!", ...

, Canal+Dos,

CNN+ The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news channel and website headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owne ...

, Telecinco HD and Canal Club. The president of the resulting string (which will keep the brands and editorial of both chains) is Alejandro Echevarria, with two CEOs who are Paolo Vasile (Contents) and Giuseppe Tringali (Advertising). PRISA also has two CEOs and holds the vice presidency of the operator. Prior to this agreement, formalized the entry of

in the shareholding of Digital +, with 22% of the shares.Telecinco y Cuatro fusionarán sus operaciones
''Telecinco'', 18 December 2009

Programming

''Cuatro'' programming includes '' Supermax'', ''Las mañanas de Cuatro'', ''

Cuarto milenio ''Cuarto milenio'' is a Spanish television program directed and presented by journalist Iker Jiménez and Carmen Porter. The program has been broadcast weekly on television channel Cuatro since November 2005, being the channel's longest running ...

'', '' Tulli'', ''

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

'', ''

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...

'', ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

'', ''

Siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisc ...

'' and ''

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

''.

Production

''Cuatro'' currently broadcasts in 16:9 for most of the programs, but in 4:3 for a minority of programming including films and older series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuatro (Tv Channel) Channels of Mediaset España Comunicación 4 Television channels and stations established in 2005 Spanish-language television stations