MundoAndino Home : Andes Venezuela Guide at Mundo Andino
Televen
Televen (a portmanteau for Television de Venezuela) is a private Venezuelan national television network.
Televen was created as an alternative for the traditional private television networks (Radio Caracas Television and Venevision). It is one of the first television networks in Venezuela to air American television series and telenovelas from Brazil and Colombia.
History
On February 12, 1988, a new television channel began their test signal on the frequency of channel 10 in Caracas; they broadcasted music videos which were accompanied by a red sphere that symbolized the number ten. On July 3, this channel officially went on the air under the name Televen.
On July 10, 1988, Televen made their first commercial broadcast with the movie Mandela, and during the first commercial break, 25 advertisements were aired, making it the longest commercial break in Venezuelan television history.
Televen's first original productions were Teledeporte, which presented a summary of sporting events, and VH-10, which was dedicated to music.
On March 17, at the main offices of the National Institute of Parks of Venezuela (Inparques), representatives from channel 12, Omnivision, and channel 10, Televen, signed an agreement which guaranteed the environmental protection of the El Cuno hill, a place where both networks had installed antennas.
In the month of November, the press department of Televen informed the media that their signal will go on the air in Zulia and Falcon by way of channel 13. On December 20, they expanded their signal to Guarenas and Guatire.
In 1989, Televen became the first television network in Venezuela to air nudity during prime time.
On January 18, 1989, Omar Camero Zamora, President of Televen, requested a news conference to clarify that the network had not been sold, but 33% of the company's stock had been negotiated by a group of businessmen judicially managed by Pedro Tinoco.
In March 1989, the Vice-president of Production of Televen, Jorge Font, announced the acquisition of the Cedros and Macaracuay theaters by the network for the use of developing television studios in them.
With the help of investors (including Venezuelan television personality Guillermo "Fantastico" Gonzalez) in the early 1990s, Televen quickly expanded their coverage to all of Venezuela and managed to attract a larger audience share than the state-owned network, Venezolana de Television, but it still remained far behind RCTV and Venevision.
On February 10, 1992, in light of the suspension of constitutional guarantees as a result of the events of February 4th, Televen suspended their opinion programs.
On June 15, 1993, Televen put into service their largest antenna a tower with the height of 150 meters, 24 transmission panels, and 30 kilowatts of power which allowed their signal to reach all of Zulia.
Starting in 1994, Televen began airing 24 hours a day.
In 1996, the Camero family retook control of Televen and, thanks to the investments of their stock holders, the network expanded and began transmitting it's signal digitally by way of the Intelsat 709 satellite.
In 1997, Televen launched their webpage and later won the ANDA award in the "New Advertising Technologies" category.
Televen purchased eight new transmitters to reach new markets in Maturin, Valle de la Pascua, Merida, Valencia, and Puerto Cabello. Televen also modernized their existing transmitters in Caracas, Coro, Vargas, Maracaibo, Maracay, Puerto Ordaz, Puerto La Cruz, and Margarita.
In 1998, Televen celebrated their tenth anniversary. They began to transmit via the Intelsat 806 satellite. With an investment of 22 million U.S. dollars, Televen began the construction of their current headquarters. Televen was originally housed inside the Centro Comercial Los Chaguaramos, a small shopping mall located in the Caracas neighborhood of Los Chaguaramos.
In the year 2000, Televen began the new millennium in their new headquarters and was considered to be one of the most modern television networks in Venezuela.
In 2004, Televen began producing more shows and they restructured their prime time schedule.
Televen has been known to occasionally export some of their programs overseas. One of these included Chamokropolis, which was similar to show that Televen also aired, called Nubeluz, which came from Peru.
Televen, along with Venevision, successfully snatched the rights to broadcasting Venezuelan national baseball games from RCTV and received the right to broadcast baseball games from U.S. Major League Baseball.
Televen once aired the popular Japanese cartoons (also known as "anime") Saint Seiya (Los Caballeros Del Zodiaco), Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Sailor Moon, Slayers (Los Justicieros), and Captain Tsubasa (Supercampeones) among other popular titles.
Current schedule
Televen's current programming chart can be found at: http://www.televen.com/programacion.asp. For those who can't read in the Spanish language, "Lunes" is "Monday", "Martes" is "Tuesday", "Miercoles" is "Wednesday", "Jueves" is "Thursday", "Viernes" is "Friday", "Sabado" is "Saturday", and "Domingo" is "Sunday".
Criticism
Televen was neutral in their political views until the arrival of Hugo Chavez, in which it became being a critic of the government. After the 2004 recall referendum, Televen has attempted to return to its neutral status by canceling the political opinion program hosted by journalist Marta Colomina, who is fierce critic of the government. Due to the decline of advertisement prices in television because of the [[Presidency of Hugo Chavez2002: Coup and strike.2Flockout|two month long general strike]], it has forced the network (along with some of its national and regional competitors) to lose some of their independence by accepting advertising from the Brazilian sect, Oracion Fuerte Al Espiritu Santo.
In 2005, Televen presented evidence to the Venezuelan courts of an alleged deal involving advertising costs between its principal competitors, RCTV and Venevision.
Because Televen decied to become neutral, many in the Venezuelan Opposition and Anti-Chavez groups criticizes Televen of summiting to Chavez. Opposition criticism increase against Televen during the Closure of RCTV. Many in the Opposition criticized Televen of not supporting the Freedom of Speech because Televen, and its rival Venevision did not speak out against the closure of RCTV. Many view Televen secretly supported the closure since it would make it the second most watch television network, originally it was third after Venevision (second most watched) and RCTV (the most watched channel).
See also
List of Venezuelan over-the-air television networks and stations
External links
Official Site
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Companies of Venezuela or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Televen
