Television in Venezuela
Television in Venezuela began in 1952 when the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez launched the state channel Televisora Nacional, making Venezuela the ninth country in the world to have television. By 1963 a quarter of Venezuelan households had television; a figure rising to 45% by 1969 and 85% by 1982.[1] Telenovelas are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions (such as 1992's Cara Sucia) are distributed internationally. Perhaps the best known television show internationally is however President Hugo Chávez' weekly talk show Aló Presidente, which began in 1999 and ended in 2012.
Channels and channel owners
The main private television networks are Venevisión, Televen and Globovisión. Public-owned television includes Venezolana de Televisión, TVes, ViVe and teleSUR. There are also local community-run television stations such as Catia TVe and a range of regional networks such as Zuliana de Televisión. The Venezuelan government also provides funding to Avila TV, Buena TV and Asamblea Nacional Televisión.
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."[2]
Venezuela uses the North American analog broadcast system NTSC and since 2009 the Japanese system with the Brazilian improvement ISDB-T.
In Venezuela the use of CATV or Satellite TV is very common and the prices are low. Inter is the leader with 430,000 subscribers (39%), followed by 400,000 DirecTV subscribers (36.5%), Net-Uno 110,000 subscribers (10%) and SuperCable 105,000 subscribers (9.5%).
On May 27 2007 the Venezuelan government didn't renewing RCTV's broadcast license. RCTV was highly critical of the Chavez government, have also been critical of many governments in the past, and often had allied with the opposition movement against the government.[3] It was replaced by public-owned TVes.
Programming
Telenovelas are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions (such as 1992's 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.
References
- ^ Swanson, David and Mancini, Paolo (1996), Politics, media, and modern democracy: an international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences, Greenwood Publishing, p240
- ^ Mark Weisbrot and Tara Ruttenberg, 14 December 2010, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Television in Venezuela: Who Dominates the Media?
- ^ "The Americas: Broadcast battles; Venezuela". The Economist. 298. Jul 21, 2007.
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See also
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| South America | ||
Dependencies not included. Semi-autonomous territories are in italics. | ||