Canal 4 (''Canal Cuatro''), previously known as ''Monte Carlo Televisión,'' is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

located in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

''.'' Owned by Grupo Monte Carlo, it is the second oldest television channel in the country, beginning its broadcasts on April 23, 1961. Canal 10 started on December 7, 1956. Canal 12 was the third channel, May 2, 1962, and Canal 5, state-owned, was the last station to start broadcasting, on June 19, 1963.

History

This TV station, originally named ''Monte Carlo Televisión Canal 4'', was initiated by Carlos Romay, entrepreneur who had founded Radio Monte Carlo in 1924, and his wife, María Elvira Salvo, whose family had built the iconic Palacio Salvo in Montevideo. In 1961, from a set that was built in downtown Montevideo, at exactly 9 p.m., Uruguayan viewers had the chance to tune ''Casino Monte Carlo'', a variety show that became the first program to be aired in the new station. The quick success of television saw Canal 4 expanding its broadcast hours throughout the 1960s, first by starting at 6 p.m., then from 12 noon. The extended schedule prompted the premiere of ''Telenoticiero Monte Carlo'' at 1 p.m.; before starting morning broadcasts. In 1964, it made its first broadcast from inland Uruguay in

Paysandú Paysandú () is the capital and most populous city of the Paysandú Department in western Uruguay. Located on the banks of the Uruguay River, it is the country's List of cities in Uruguay, fourth-largest city and a vital cultural and economic hu ...

during an agricultural fair, and in 1966, it became the first to make a live broadcast of an electoral act. After almost 5 years of having only one station in the Uruguayan TV market, Canal 4 decided to launch by investing heavily on regional stars and international TV series. In addition, Canal 4 introduced

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...

machines in the Uruguayan television industry. Before that, because of the absence of such equipment, all programming was live, including the commercial breaks. Telenochearchivofoto noticia

On July 20, 1969, the day

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...

and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

landed on the Moon during the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

mission, Carlos Giacosa, main anchor of Telenoche 4 at that time, surprised everyone by conducting a live interview, by phone, with Wernher von Braun. Giacosa had visited

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

years before, and he had kept a business card with the phone number of his secretary. Fernando Vilar was the main anchor for TeleNoche 4, the station's signature news show, during 22 uninterrupted years, from 1993 to 2015. During 2016, Uruguay celebrated 60 years of television in the country, which prompted many newspapers and magazines to feature special articles to highlight the occasion. In 2017, Canal 4 decided to join the regional trend to feature Turkish television series, a genre that is highly popular in South America, at the 11 p.m. time slot. Telenoche 4 decided to upgrade its sets, graphic packages, and style, while no longer using its main

newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editing, editors, and Television producer, producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visu ...

set, called ''Centro Monte Carlo de Noticias''. During 2019, while

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

the station as ''Canal 4'' after almost two decades of using ''Monte Carlo Televisión'', the channel started airing ''El Diario del Lunes'', a weekly show with soccer legends Fernando Álvez and Jorge Seré, which focuses on the Uruguayan League and the national soccer team. In 2020, Canal 4 launched its international channel, ''Canal 4 Internacional'', available for subscription only, outside of Uruguayan soil, via

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

Current programming

Original programming

* ''Santa misa'' (1961–present) * '' Telenoche'' (1968–present) * ''En Foco'' (2005–present) * ''Agitando una más'' (2009–present) * ''Algo contigo'' (2011–present) * ''Santo & Seña'' (2012–present) * '' Todas las voces'' (2005–present) * ''De la tierra al plato'' (2017–present) * ''Bien con Lourdes'' (2018–present) * '' Vespertinas'' (2018–2021) * '' Vamo arriba'' (2018–present) * ''De película'' (2018–present) * ''El diario del lunes'' (2019–present) * ''Reenviado'' (2019–present) * ''Buen vivir'' (2020–present) * ''Zoom Internacional'' (2020–present) * ''Únicos'' (2020–present) * '' Los ocho escalones'' (2021–present) *''Zoom de noticias'' (2021–present) *''Cena con mamá'' (2021–present) *'' Bake Off Uruguay'' (2021–present)

Acquired programming

Drama

* '' The Good Doctor'' (2017) (as ''Un médico brillante'') (2020–present) * '' Dudaktan Kalbe'' (2007) (as ''De los labios al corazón'') (2020–present) * '' Güllerin Savaşı'' (2020) (as ''Guerra de Rosas'') (2021–present) * ''Ufak Tefek Cinayetler'' (2017) (as ''Traición Secreta'') (2021–present)

Logos

File:Canal 4 Monte Carlo TV.png, 1969–73 File:Canal 4 Logo.jpg, 1978–80

References

External links

Official website
Television channels and stations established in 1961 1961 establishments in Uruguay Television in Uruguay Mass media in Montevideo Television networks in Uruguay Television stations in Uruguay {{Uruguay-tv-station-stub