Television in Venezuela began in 1952, when the president
Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 19 ...
launched the state channel
Televisora Nacional
Televisora Nacional was the first television station ( state-owned) to begin operations in Venezuela. It broadcast from 1953 to 1992 making Venezuela the ninth country in the world to have television.
History
On 22 November 1952, the first televi ...
, making
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
the
ninth country in the world to have a public television network. By 1963, a quarter of Venezuelan households had television; a figure rising to 45% by 1969 and 85% by 1982.
Telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
s are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions (such as ''
Cara Sucia'') are distributed internationally. Perhaps the best known television show internationally was President
Hugo Chávez' weekly talk show ''
Aló Presidente'', which began in 1999 and ended in 2012. The government also makes regular use of ''cadenas'' (mandatory interruptions on all channels to show government broadcasts).
Channels and channel owners
Televisa was the second television network to begin operations in Venezuela after Televisora Nacional, and the first commercial network before
Radio Caracas Televisión
Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was a Venezuelan free-to-air television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, Radio Caracas Televisi ...
both in 1953.
Ondas del Lago Televisión was the first Venezuelan regional television network based in
Maracaibo,
Zulia State
Zulia State ( es, Estado Zulia, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It ...
. Created in 1957, lasted only a few months before ceasing operations. Actually the main private television networks are
Venevisión
Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros.
History
The company's roots date back to June 1, 1953, with the establis ...
,
Televen
Televen is a private Venezuelan national television network headquartered on the Caracas neighborhood of Horizonte. For this reason it is also called 'Canal de Horizonte'. Televen was inaugurated as the ''TELEVEN Corporation'' (''Corporación TE ...
and
Globovisión
Globovisión is a 24-hour television news network. It broadcasts over-the-air in Caracas, Aragua, Carabobo and Zulia on UHF channel 33. Globovisión is seen in the rest of Venezuela on cable or satellite (Globovisión has an alliance with Dire ...
. Public-owned television includes
Venezolana de Televisión
Corporación Venezolana de Televisión (Spanish for: ''Venezuelan Television Corporation'') or VTV is a state-run television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, which can be seen throughout the capital and surrounding areas on channel 8. Programs ...
,
TVes
TVES is a Venezuelan public television channel. Its name is short for Televisora Venezolana Social (''Venezuelan Social Television'') and is pronounced ("te ves"), meaning ''you see yourself''. It replaced the signal of Radio Caracas Televisión ...
,
ViVe
Vive may refer to:
* Vive, Viva, a Romance language expression
* ''Vive'' (José José album), 1974
* ''Vive'' (Lucía Méndez album), 2004
*Vive (a cappella group), a cappella group from England, United Kingdom
*ViVe Televisión, a state-owned Ve ...
and
teleSUR. There are also local community-run television stations such as
Catia TVe
Catia TVe (Televisora Comunitaria del Oeste) is a Venezuelan television channel, created and administered by the residents of Catia, a major neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas. Seventy percent of its programming is created by community o ...
and a range of regional networks such as
Zuliana de Televisión
Zuliana de Televisión (known as Zuliana TV or ZUTV for short), is a Venezuelan regional television station seen by those living the western Venezuelan state of Zulia. It broadcasts on UHF channel 30.
History
ZUTV was inaugurated on June 17, 1 ...
. The Venezuelan government also provides funding to
Avila TV
Ávila TV is a public regional television channel based in the city of Caracas. It can be seen in the metropolitan area of Caracas on UHF channel 47 or Inter channel 89, and in the rest of the country on Digital TV channel 25.3 or CANTV TV Sateli ...
,
Buena TV
Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,[Asamblea Nacional Televisión
Asamblea Nacional Televisión (ANTV) was the television station of the National Assembly of Venezuela. It was created in 2005 to cover the proceedings of Venezuela's National Assembly. Their goal is to increase the participation of Venezuelan cit ...]
.
In recent years, the audience share of private terrestrial broadcasters has fallen from around 80% in 2000 to around 60% in 2010, with the bulk of the lost audience going to cable and satellite broadcasters, which increased audience share from around 17% to around 33% over the same period. State television's share increased from around 2% to 5%, not including the "cadenas." "Communitarian channels," which are funded by the Venezuelan government, are not counted as state television in these figures despite relying on government funding to broadcast. "Communitarian channels technically are supposed to be independent, and many of them struggle to assert
some autonomy vis-`a-vis the state. But only progovernment channels receive state funding and support. Given that there are few other funding sources, communitarian channels inevitably end up complying with state directives."
Since 1980, Venezuela uses the North American analog color broadcast system
NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
and since 2009, the Japanese system with the Brazilian improvement
ISDB-T.
In Venezuela, the use of
CATV
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...
or Satellite TV is very common and the prices are low.
Inter
Inter may refer to:
Association football clubs
* Inter Milan, an Italian club
* SC Internacional, a Brazilian club
* Inter Miami CF, an American club
* FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club
* FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club
* FK Inter Bratislava, a form ...
is the leader with 430,000 subscribers (39%), followed by 400,000
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
subscribers (36.5%), Net-Uno 110,000 subscribers (10%) and SuperCable 105,000 subscribers (9.5%).
Programming
Telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
s are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions (such as ''
Cara Sucia'') are distributed internationally. Perhaps the best known television show internationally was however, President
Hugo Chávez' weekly talk show ''
Aló Presidente'', which began in 1999 and ran with occasional breaks until 2012.
Community television
The Chávez government devoted considerable financial resources to support community television as part of its view of participatory democracy. Community television programs received funds through the National Ministry of Communication and
PDVSA
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...
corporate social responsibility funds.
Community programs like
Catia TVe
Catia TVe (Televisora Comunitaria del Oeste) is a Venezuelan television channel, created and administered by the residents of Catia, a major neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas. Seventy percent of its programming is created by community o ...
provided a forum for marginalized communities in Venezuela to document and broadcast their struggles.
2007 RCTV shutdown
Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) started broadcasting on November 15, 1953. It was the third television network to operate in Venezuela and had an important role in Venezuelan popular culture. Since the networks creation, soap operas played an important part of RCTV's programming and was part of Venezuelan culture. The programming of RCTV interpreted, reflected and described the customs of contemporary Venezuela which was evidenced by the high ratings of the network.
RCTV was highly critical of the Chávez government, as it was critical of many governments in the past, and often had allied with the opposition movement against the Bolivarian government. After threats and attacks on the station by the Venezuelan government, Hugo Chávez on May 27, 2007, shut down the station by not renewing RCTV's broadcast license which resulted in protests in Venezuela. RCTV began broadcasting via cable and satellite service providers in July 2007, as
RCTV Internacional
RCTV International (formerly known as Coral Pictures or Coral International) is a subsidiary of Empresas 1BC. It was formed in Miami, Florida in 1982 as Coral Pictures to be the international distributor of RCTV's productions.
In 1986, the comp ...
. On January 23, 2010, RCTV International did not deliver a speech by President Chávez and that same day the government asked companies, public cable and satellite operators to take RCTV International off the air. Chavez said, he would not tolerate media “at the service of coup-plotting, against the people, against the nation, against the national independence and against the dignity of the Republic.”
See also
*
List of television networks in Venezuela
*
Media of Venezuela
*
:Venezuelan telenovelas
References
{{Television in South America