Jump to content

Telecanal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Telecanal
CountryChile
Programming
Language(s)Spanish
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
Ownership
OwnerCanal 2 SA
(Albavisión)
Sister channelsLa Red
History
Launched5 December 2005 (2005-12-05)
ReplacedVidavisión (1999–2005)
Links
Websitewww.telecanal.cl
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital UHFListings may vary
Telecanal's former logo, used since 2008 until October 2011

Telecanal is a Chilean privately-owned TV channel, launched on Monday, 5 December 2005, six years and four days after the end of the transmissions of Canal 2, whose broadcast hours required by law were covered by slots paid for by the evangelical ministry VidaVisión. Its offices and studios are located in the Sanhattan neighborhood of Las Condes.

At its launch, Telecanal offered alternative programming for the local industry. However, during its first years of broadcasting it left behind its original offer, reducing its in-house programs and limiting itself to broadcasting foreign programming. Much of the output has already been broadcast by La Red since both channels belong to the Albavisión group; therefore, both are the only broadcast television channels in Chile that have the same owner, even though national legislation and regulatory entities have blocked this ownership situation in other similar cases, including the one that led to the bankruptcy of the previous owner of the channel 2 frequency in 1999.

Its biggest competitors are its sister channel La Red and TV+, being the three channels with the lowest audience reception in the country. It currently airs in Santiago on VHF channel 2, and digital terrestrial television since 2021.

History

[edit]

Background

[edit]

Originally, channel 2 in Santiago was used by the high-power repeater station of Televisión Nacional de Chile operating from Cerro El Roble (border between the Metropolitan Region and the Valparaíso Region) to relay its signal to other localities. This had to be technically modified to give frequencies to the broadcasts of a new channel in Santiago.

The eventual winner became Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones, who, by associating itself with Estudio Visión (as CCC had no resources to produce content for television), began Canal 2 Rock & Pop, based on the existing radio station of the same name. However, the channel started facing a series of financial crises and lack of ratings, as well as the sale of the license in 1998 to Canal 2, S.A., which in 1999, began broadcasting VidaVisión, an evangelical channel, during daytime hours. On the early hours of December 1, 1999, Rock & Pop's programming on the station closed, facing moments of tension between employees and staff, and a replacement service (Canal 2) took over with a minimal eight-hour schedule and slots from the VidaVisión network.

VidaVisión was an evangelical channel created by Christian media professionals led by Alejandro Martínez (born Santiago in 1965 and became a born-again Christian in 1984),[1] who created two local Christian stations, Gospel TV (first Christian television station in Chile), RTV (La Roka TV) and a kids channel on VTR, Rainbow Club (first Chilean kids channel, later renamed The Fun Channel). Around early 2001, VidaVisión rented over 100 hours per month on Canal 2's frequencies.[2]

In August 2001, the station was renting from 5pm to midnight. Alejandro Martínez said that the station was "not an evangelical channel" but a general profile station. Due to its beliefs, it had to omit the promotion of gambling from its programming. It initially did not aim to have a newscast in a first phase, but would offer one by 2002. The channel also aired safe, violent-free cartoons and planned a children's program similar to Cachureos but avoiding all acts of violence. There were also programs dedicated to the evangelical music scene, and Grupo Cooperativa went to the United States on purpose to obtain know-how from Christian television stations there.[3] VidaVisión started to rent studios from Edu Comunicaciones (now Televisión Interactiva), who at the time controlled Vía X, Zona Latina, and ARTV to remain on the air for at least 8 hours per day by law to avoid forfeiture of its signal. As a result, religious programming ended up coping with the full extent of daily transmissions.

On February 17, 2004, VidaVisión lost its studios at Alameda 2520 under the grounds that it lacked the technical conditions to operate as a television station. Work evaluated at CL$100 million to continue operating from its extant facilities was made, but its staff was unaware that its operations were on the verge of closing. As consequence, the staff had to start producing its programming from the streets.[4]

Launch (2005–2010)

[edit]

In July 2005, Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones, the owner of the frequency, announced that it would sell the channel 2 concession to Inversiones Alfa Tres SA, led by Jaime Cuadrado (former commercial manager of Canal 13 and personal friend of Don Francisco) for CLP 2.7 million.[5] The VidaVisión programming had left Canal 2's signal and was replaced by color bars.[6]

The sale became final in September of that year. That same month, Telecanal began its test phase, in which it only aired corporate promotions for the channel, as well as revealing the channel's logo and slogan for eight hours a day (especially overnight), to comply with the Chilean regulations. In that video, the faces of the channel and the planned programming were revealed, which was different than the one that was planned. On October 27, Alfa Tres acquired the frequencies formerly used by the Telenorte network which operated between Arica and La Serena.[7]

The channel began its official broadcasts on Monday, December 5, 2005, but only on terrestrial television. Negotiations with VTR were underway in order to enable the channel to be seen by its subscriber base of 750,000.[7] Its broadcasts through cable television began on January 1, 2006, through the networks of VTR and on January 10 on Coltrahue TV, in June, the channel began broadcasting on satellite through Telefónica TV Digital and in December through Gtd, on 23 March 2010, it reached Claro TV's cable network.

Initially, the channel had small live slots of no more than 30 minutes in length, while the bulk of its programming was based on foreign series, cartoons (Telemonitos), films, and telenovelas, mainly from Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. Launch titles included Soy Gitano, La Mentira and Privilegio de amar. Its limited local programming consisted of Casi a las 12 (women's interest program), Canal abierto (discussion program) and a youth co-production called NFK2 (pronounced "enfocados") presented by Paloma Aliaga and Daniel Valenzuela. The Telemonitos strand included foreign animated series such as Sinbad, Sitting Ducks and Timon and Pumbaa, interspersed by local studio segments with Lidia Gutiérrez.[7] With just one year on air, new programs came to light such as the sports program Como en la radio, the magazine Cocinados, and the talk show Canal Abierto. Among their main faces were Daniel Valenzuela, Carolina Correa, Milton Millas, and Carla Ballero.

It was the most technologically advanced television station in Chile at the time of its launch. Jaime Cuadrado was appointed as its director in order to avoid La Red from controlling the station, which was a violation of CNTV laws. The channel did, however, gain access to La Red's back catalog of imported series. A similar arrangement existed between La Red and Canal 13, in which Canal 13 acquired titles and it and La Red shared revenues. The scheme used to set up its operations was similar to the planned buying of Red Global in Peru.[7]

In mid-October 2008, as a result of the worldwide financial crisis, the television company decided to remove a large part of its national programming, which was mostly carried out by external producers, leaving its most emblematic program "Cocinados" on the screen, together with Conspiración Copano, Hiperconectados, Pago x ver, Pura noche and Mundo Motor. Its newscast, En Línea, was transferred to 11pm with a half-hour edition, while the films that occupied the primetime slots in "Cine de Estrellas", were moved to 8pm.

2009 started with the return of Pura Noche but with Alfredo Alonso as its host, who joins the station, as well as Krishna Navas, who later would have her talk show with female themes ("Only them"), along with Pamela Díaz, Liliana Ross and Matilda Svensson. "Jugados" and "Actualidad central" were also created.

As of April 2009, the network's reach increased its coverage towards the Chilean Antarctic.

On 16 November 2009, the station's first late show debuted, "Influencia Humana" (with Jorge Castro de la Barra), which incorporated Pablo Zúñiga into the channel. The slot was well received by the public, and key national personalities were interviewed, such as presenters Felipe Camiroaga and Vivi Kreutzberger.[8]

Early 2010s

[edit]

In early January 2010, Telecanal dispatched a journalist, Sergio Molleda, for Anatel's presidential debate. A few days after the debate, the news service "En Línea" stopped broadcasting. In late February, "Influencia Humana" was canceled and weeks later, the same thing happened with "Only They", and again, the programming focused on canned foreign content.

In September 2010 it began to build a sports area for the transmission of the UEFA Europa League,[9] replacing La Red that broadcast it in the previous season, and Monday through Friday at midnight Hello sports, covering other disciplines issued other than football, like basketball, volleyball and rugby.

In November of that same year, businessman Jaime Cuadrado, then owner of the sign, closed an agreement to sell Telecanal the Mexican, a former executive of Grupo Televisa and former director of Mega Guillermo Canedo White.

In 2011, Telecanal broadcast the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which was held in Denmark, for the first time on Chilean over-the-air television.

In June-July 2012, Telecanal aired that year's European Championships, held in Poland and Ukraine, shared with Chilevisión. The live broadcast of the match between England and Ukraine on June 19 caused at least five Twitter trending topics and had better ratings than Chilevisión, who preferred to use the airtime to air content for women (La Jueza and Maid in Manhattan) and air the match on delay.[10]

Mid 2010s

[edit]

In 2013, Telecanal ended with an annual rating of 0.43 rating points, even being surpassed by UCV (which reached 1.3 annual viewing points), the channel less seen in Chilean television. The poor results are explained only in issuing nullspaces packaged programming and live.

In December 2013 a new slot of Mexican telenovelas opened at 21:00, with the premiere of A Family Lucky. With this decision, Telecanal decided to take NCIS, which is issued only on weekends.

Since 1 January 2014, José Manuel Larraín assumed the new executive director of the station.

During May of that year, every Saturday the "Specials of Telecanal" transmitted the national series Picaflor Effect.

Since January, Telecanal began broadcasting "A3D" infomercials from Monday to Sunday, occupying the block from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Following the departure of its programs "A las 11" and "Teletiempo", Telecanal is dedicated only to its "Entertainers" program.

ADN TV

[edit]

At the beginning of March 2016, national media reported on the project being developed for an open news television channel under the name of the informative radio signal of Ibero Americana Radio Chile - a subsidiary of the Spanish multimedia conglomerate Prisa -, in conjunction with Telecanal and La Red. To the first, I would rent 12 hours of airtime; to the second, a studio and physical, technical and human resources in its television center in Quilín. The channel would operate under the threshold of the company Multimedios GLP, controlled by the radio consortium and Albavisión, which then served only as a joint-venture for the sale of advertising in the media that both companies operated in the country.[11]

The new channel would have information as its forte, with central and current newscasts; in addition to spaces for investigative journalism, interviews, and some for entertainment and culture, all independent of ADN Radio's radio programming, which would not see its programming modified. It would be editorially led by Gerson del Río, and the anchor news conduction would be in charge of Mauricio Hofmann and Mirna Schindler; Its executive director would be the person who held the same position at La Red, Javier Urrutia. Despite this, Telecanal would not disappear completely, since it would transmit the remaining 12 hours (until noon) giving way to ADN TV broadcasts from that hour onwards.

It was made public that, thanks to its alliance with La Red, the new channel would own the rights to broadcast Chilean soccer goals, and given the presence of Telecanal on pay TV, ADN TV would be available on most of the operators. .

ADN TV debuted on 10 June 2016 with the broadcast of Euro 2016 by the radio's sports team: Víctor Cruces or Ignacio Salcedo hosting; stories by Alberto Jesús López "El Trovador del Gol", Patricio Barrera "El Grillo del Gol" and Manuel "Manolo" Fernández; and comments by Danilo Díaz and Sergio Vargas. The matches significantly improved Telecanal's audience, which hovered between 0 and 1 point, finally consolidating by achieving a historic index with peaks of 16 points and an average of 13 points on July 10, during the final match between France and Portugal, surpassing all the competition, even the leading channel of the moment, Mega.[12]

In addition, it broadcast the Chile - Colombia series on 16 and 17 July in the American Zone of the 2016 Davis Cup, again in charge of the channel's sports team, thus achieving a peak of 4 audience points, surpassing at certain times to Channel 13 that showed a weekly summary of the Turkish television series Selin.[13][14]

The ADN TV project was canceled without further explanation in December 2016.[15]

High-definition signal and entrance to digital terrestrial television

[edit]

The channel began transmitting in high definition in 2016 through channel 7 of the cable operator Coltrahue Digital of Santa Cruz, stretching its 4:3 signal to this format. On 6 September of that year, Telecanal carried out a broadcast test in 16:9 aspect and 720p resolution – unlike the rest of the Chilean open channels, which broadcast in 1080i – through the Amazonas 4A satellite that covers all of South America. South; Along with the HD signal, a 4:3 SD signal was added and the "1seg" that is used for reception on mobile devices.[16]

It was not until 28 September 2021 that Telecanal officially began broadcasting on TVD through virtual channel 2.1, on the UHF 31 multiplex in Santiago.[17][18] That same month, the channel began broadcasting the competitions of WWE Raw and SmackDown, after its previous stint on La Red.[19] It also broadcasts International Boxing.

In September 2023, the National Television Council began the administrative sanctioning procedure against Canal Dos S.A, the channel's operating company, due to non-compliance for not starting broadcasts on open digital television of the Telecanal signal in the cities of: Arica (11.1 - 26 UHF), Iquique (12.1 - 41 UHF), Antofagasta (4.1 - 21 UHF), Chuquicamata (8.1 - 23 UHF), Copiapó (5.1 - 41 UHF), San Pedro de Atacama (12.1 - 26 UHF), La Serena and Coquimbo (5.1 - 35 UHF), San José de Maipo (2.1 - 21 UHF), Panguipulli (4.1 - 32 UHF) and Los Muermos (12.1 - 26 UHF).[20]

On 1 November 2023, it arrived to Copiapó on TVD, (5.1 - 41 UHF), being the first region to receive the digital signal from Santiago.

Relaying RT en Español

[edit]

On 16 June 2025, Telecanal started relaying RT en Español permanently, although the channel is still obliged to continue airing CNTV-mandated cultural programming (airing El Conciertazo and Reino Animal) and electoral campaigns.[21] The RT en Español website also mentioned its coverage on channel 2.1.[22]

On June 17, UDI representatives Natalia Romero and Gustavo Benavente sent a letter to regulator CNTV showing their concern for the RT relays, as well as its ban in European countries at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and possible ideological issues. Additionally, there is a lack of publicly-accessible information concerning the relays, especially with Telecanal being an Anatel member. The letter also suggests that RT does not respect the Chilean laws regarding journalistic independence.[23] The Russian Embassy in Chile defended its stance under supposed claims of "diversity of expression and opinions", and being comparable to networks such as the BBC, France TV, Deutsche Welle, ABC, NHK, CBC and others.[24] An investigation by Radio Bio-Bio noted that the network was investing US$3 million in expanding the terrestrial relays of its Spanish-language channel in Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica, while Chilean legislators criticized its presence for infringing the law.[25]

On June 18, 2025, the National Television Council convened in an extraordinary session citing Telecanal's director Rodrigo Álvarez to provide more transparency about the details of the contract with RT, while Subtel required information about the channel's license. CNTV said that foreign broadcasts on over-the-air television must be subject to editorial criteria from the licensing station, and that content from a country at war like Russia could lead to debates On the status of pluralism and democracy.[26]

Programming

[edit]
Subject from Es:Telecanal#Producciones históricas
See also Pt:Telecanal#Programas & Fr:Telecanal#Émission
  • A las 11 (Matinal)
  • En línea (Telejornal)
  • Pura noche (Juguete)
  • Telemonitos (Infantil)
  • Pago x ver (Concurso)
  • Agenda central (Debate)

Controversy

[edit]

In July 2005, Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones (former frequency owner) sold the signal to Alfa Tres. Jaime Cuadrado, owner of Alfa Tres, is the former commercial manager of Canal 13 and a personal friend of Mario Kreuzberger (Don Francisco (television host)). Alejandro Martinez, owner of VidaVisión, initiated a lawsuit against Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones alleging fraud.

Also, Jaime Cuadrado has ties with Mexican media mogul Remigio Ángel González, owner of Red Televisión. It has even been stated that González is the actual owner of the station. Ownership of more than one television station is forbidden by Chilean law to avoid a horizontal monopoly.[7]

A 2017 report by El Mostrador exposed the illegal operation held by Albavisión at the time of the Panama Papers. La Red, its sister channel, was owned by Global Holding Properties Corporation, registered in the British Virgin Islands. The National Television Council investigated the two licenses regarding an infraction of existing laws. Such investigation could have lead to Telecanal's closure, but nothing ultimately happened.[27]

See also

[edit]
La Red

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Alejandro Nelson Martínez Véliz
  2. ^ QUE ES VIDA VISION
  3. ^ Evangélicos se la juegan por televisión abierta, El Mercurio, August 12, 2001
  4. ^ Desalojo obligó a canal evangélico a transmitir desde la calle
  5. ^ Fiscalía Nacional Económica (July 13, 2007). "Declaración de Derecho de Propiedad y Adquirido de Canal 2 S.A." (PDF). Retrieved July 7, 2005.
  6. ^ Vidavisión... ¿pa' la casa?
  7. ^ a b c d e "Nueva señal de Televisión "Telecanal" comienza hoy sus transmisiones en todo Chile". El Mercurio. 5 December 2005. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ "Javier Urrutia, el director ejecutivo de La Red obsesionado con Chilevisión". El Mostrador (in Spanish). 21 November 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Telecanal se ganó el aplauso del respetable con transmisión de la Eurocopa". The Clinic (in Spanish). June 19, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  11. ^ "Radio ADN llegará a la televisión abierta con ambicioso proyecto junto a La Red". Emol (in Spanish). El Mercurio. 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  12. ^ "Rating histórico para Telecanal por final de la "Eurocopa"". ShowBiz Publimetro. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  13. ^ "Tevitos Cinéfilos on Twitter". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  14. ^ "ADN TV transmitirá serie de Copa Davis entre Chile y Colombia". AS Chile (in Spanish). 14 July 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  15. ^ "Proyecto televisivo de Radio ADN es cancelado antes de su salida al aire". El Mercurio. EMOL. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  16. ^ "12310 V - Paquete (Mux) Chile en el Amazonas 2, Amazonas 3, Amazonas 4A (61.0º W) :. Portal EDS En Español". www.portaleds.com. Portal EDS En Español. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  17. ^ @tvdaldia (29 September 2021). "Para no creerlo, llegó Telecanal HD a Santiago por el 2.1 (31 UHF). Aunque la calidad de imagen está escalada transmitiendose a 720p, misma calidad que usa para subir la señal en el satelite Hispasat 74w" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ^ @tvenseriocom (29 September 2021). "¡¡¡Apareció Telecanal en la TDT santiaguina!!!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "La WWE regresa a la TV Abierta de la mano de Telecanal este fin de semana". TVD al Día. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  20. ^ "Acta de la Sesión Ordinaria del CNTV del día lunes 25 de septiembre 2023 | Consejo Nacional de Televisión". cntv.cl. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  21. ^ "Cadena rusa RT llega a la televisión abierta: Ocupará la frecuencia de Telecanal". tvdaldia.cl. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
  22. ^ "El «bélico» contenido con el que sorprendió este lunes Telecanal". elfiltrador.com. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
  23. ^ Diputados de la UDI ofician al CNTV por "sorpresiva" transmisión de señal estatal rusa en canal chileno
  24. ^ Embajada rusa en Chile defiende emisión de canal RT y llama a "dialogar con argumentos y sin censura"
  25. ^ La polémica llegada del canal ruso RT: críticas apuntan a medio propagandístico y que infringe norma
  26. ^ CNTV cita a Telecanal y pide antecedentes sobre vínculo con canal ruso RT
  27. ^ La doble concesión de TV que vulneró la legalidad en el Gobierno de Piñera y se consolidó con Bachelet
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Telecanal&oldid=1297104724"