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 appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

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 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+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

History

In 2006, Cuatro scored a massive coup by striking a deal with the Royal Spanish Football Federation 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. 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 championship, scoring the highest ratings in the history of Spanish television (since 1992). The two broadcasters also achieved rights for 2010 FIFA World Cup. Cuatro TV Place de la Concorde Paris P1200375

Cuatro TV Place de la Concorde Paris P1200375

On 18 December 2009, Mediaset, 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 laun ...

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, 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 ow ...

, 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 Mediaset 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'', '' Tulli'', '' La Liga'', '' 9-1-1'', '' SpongeBob SquarePants'', '' Siren'' and '' Castle''.

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