Televen
 | |
| Type | Broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Branding | Televen |
| Country | |
First air date | February 12, 1988 |
| Availability | National |
| Founded | February 12, 1988 by Omar Camero Zamora |
Broadcast area | National |
| Owner | Corporacion Televen |
Key people | Omar Camero Zamora, President Televen Juan Andres Bello, Programming Manager |
Launch date | June 3, 1988 |
| 10 | |
Official website | Official Website |
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 (RCTV) and Venevisión. 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, Televen began its test signal; they aired music videos and introduced their red sphere logo that symbolizes the number ten. On June 3, 1988, Televen officially went on the air.
A week later, Televen conducted their first commercial broadcast, airing the movie Mandela. The first commercial break contained 25 ads, which was the longest commercial break in Venezuelan history.
In the beginning, Televen produced their own original telenovelas, but due to economic reasons, this was discontinued.
With the help of investors (including Venezuelan television personality Guillermo "Fantastico" Gonzalez) in the early 1990s, Televen quickly expanded to cover all of Venezuela and managed to attract a larger audience share than the state-owned network, Venezolana de Televisión, but it was still far behind the two main networks, RCTV and Venevisión.
Starting in 1994, Televen began airing 24 hours a day, uninterrupted.
Televen began transmitting via the Intelsat 709 satellite, digitalizing their signal.
In 1997, Televen introduced their webpage and that same year they won the ANDA award in the category "New Advertising Technologies".
Televen purchased eight new transmitters to reach new markets in Maturín, Valle de la Pascua, Mérida, Valencia, and Puerto Cabello. In Caracas, Coro, Vargas, Maracaibo, Maracay, Puerto Ordaz, Puerto La Cruz, and Margarita), Televen modernized their existing transmitters.
In 1998, Televen celebrated its tenth anniversary. It began to transmit its signal via the Intelsat 806 satellite. With an investment of 22 million dollars, Televen began the construction of a new, larger headquarters. Televen's originally was 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 original programs and restructured their prime time schedule.
Televen has been known to occasionally export some of their original programs overseas. One of these included Chamokropolis, which was similar to show that Televen also aired called Nubeluz, which was imported from Peru.
Televen, along with Venevisión, successfully snatched the rights to broadcasting Venezuelan national baseball games from Radio Caracas Television and recieved the right to broadcast baseball games from the United States' Major League Baseball.
Though Televen did not buy the rights to the 1992, 1996, and 2002 FIFA World Cups, which were eventually aired by Radio Caracas Television, Venevisión, and Venezolana de Televisión (in Venezuela, these three channels have traditionally broadcasted World Cup games).
Televen once aired the popular Japanese cartoons (also known as "anime") Saint Seiya (Los Caballeros Del Zodiaco), Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT.
Current schedule
You can see Televen's programming chart at: http://www.televen.com/programacion.asp. For those who can't read in the Spanish language, "Hora" is "Hour", "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 Chávez, in which it became being a critic of the government. After the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004, 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 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 introduced evidence to Venezuelan courts of an alleged deal involving advertising costs between its principal competitors, RCTV and Venevisión.