Military governments (1969–1979) State television in Bolivia emerged a long time after the same started in other Latin American countries. On October 5, 1965, the government signed Supreme Decree 7345 to create the Radio and Television Direction, which was followed by Decree-Law 7454 on December 22 the same year for the government to control the service without specifying technical characteristics. On December 23, at a Cabinet Council, the supreme decree for regulation and supervision of television was signed which, for one year after the signing of the decree, gave control of the television service to the Bolivian State for the future development of the country. Following the
1966 Bolivian general election, plans were already underway for a national television service owned by the government. Up until then, Bolivia was served by a small number of closed-circuit experimental systems. The new service was set to be called "Red Nacional de Televisión" (National Television Network). Proposals from Spanish, Japanese, American and French companies were presented. The bid was won by Spanish company Industrias Electrónicas y Electromecánicas (INELEC), by means of Supreme Decree 8262 of February 20, 1968, for the television network in the cities of La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Santa Cruz, Potosí and Sucre, at the total cost of US$2,487,900. Provisions were made for the government to provide a one-year monopoly to the first TV station in Bolivia, scheduled to start before the end of 1966. The state had already reserved three frequencies, channel 5 in
La Paz, channel 4 in
Cochabamba and channel 3 in
Santa Cruz de la Sierra. After the prospective first year period ended, the state would allow the creation of private television stations. Given the rumors of the closure of Congress and the desire of the government of that time to have power over the country to become a dictator, President
René Barrientos Ortuño signs the Supreme Decree 08395, on June 19, 1968, with which he founded the Bolivian Radio and Television Company (
RTB), and later, with Supreme Decree 8571 (November 20, 1968) decides to change the name to Empresa Nacional de Televisión Boliviana (or by its acronym,
ENTBOL). The first experimental broadcasts were held in July 1968, with no structured continuation and limited to a few areas of La Paz.
Test phase Programmed test transmissiones were made throughout July, including the July 16, 1969 celebrations. With high expectations, ENTBOL aired the audiovisual archive of the Apollo 11 moon landing, running 49 minutes, and shown at 8pm on July 24. From the Supreme Government, it solicited the importing companies of television sets to install such sets at Plaza Murillo, Paseo del Prado and other areas of La Paz to see mankind's achievement on television. The president initially authorized the launch of Televisión Boliviana for August 4. However, the launch was delayed until the end of the month.
On air Televisión Boliviana was founded on August 30, 1969, at 7:46pm, during the constitutional government of President
Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, being an unfinished project of the last stage of the deceased president René Barrientos Ortuño The first face seen on the station was that of Tito Landa. International news came from
DPA newswires, where the news arrived on a three-day delay. Juan Fernando Landa, better known as Tito Landa, was its first presenter, being on the network from opening night. Ovando Candia's government signed Supreme Decree 9352 on August 20, 1970, giving the company to the Ministry of Information and a three-member board. Later that year, Supreme Decree 9914 granted French company LGT the supply of relay equipment to mining districts, from Luribay in La Paz to Colquiri, as well as equipment and technical material for a
Motorola communication system. The choice of a French company followed on from the bankruptcy of INELEC in 1970. Until then, only the central station in La Paz was finished at the cost of US$1,415,138.70. In addition to assuring security to Bolivia thanks to the telecommunications services, it was also suggested that ENTEL, the telecommunications company, should join
Intelsat or another satellite consortium. Between 1976 and 1977, TVB started experimenting live broadcasts between two cities. and one state network with national coverage. That same year General
David Padilla authorized the granting of licenses for private television stations. However, before they were assigned, his regime suffered a coup by General
García Meza, who promptly re-established the state monopoly on television, and appointed military rectors in the universities, so that its channels came under the close control of the Ministry of the Interior. The relative independence that these stations had until then was considerably reduced.
Arrival of color television (1979) The government adopted
PAL-M as the color television deployment in April 1976, following its introduction coming from Supreme Decree 13381 on February 20 that year. However, the television station owned by the Juan Misael Saracho University of
Tarija opted for the NTSC format from April 13 that year, contradicting the decree. This situation was corrected in 1979, enabling all television station in Bolivia to broadcast only on the NTSC standard. in color compatible with the M transmission system in black and white. This, despite the fact that from 1976 some foreign productions could be seen in color in the country. In early November 1979, its broadcasts were frequently interrupted in order to control public opposition.
Temporary Union takeover (November 1979) On November 17, 1979, during the government transition between Walter Guevara Arce (who was a clandestine ruler), Alberto Natusch Busch's de facto regime and the recent administration of
Lidia Gueiler, The Televisión Boliviana Workers' Union (ENTB) accepted the chance of taking charge of the network, as well as a transitional schedule, until it was positioned to the new authorities. Using an announcement spread to several media outlets, the union raised the awareness of the abandoning of the company's authorities after the fall of Natusch Busch's regime. As consequence, the Presidency of the Republic, by means of senator Benjamín Miguel Harb, approved the union takeover, with the aim of maintaining Channel 7's television transmissions, such act was approved by press, radio and television labor unions. The announcement was signed by several of its members, among them Felix Espinoza, Freddy Meneses, Pastor Gemio, José Orozco, José Luis Fernández and Rosario C. de Flores.
Democratic governments and the entrance of private media (1982–2003) During the governments of presidents
Hernán Siles Zuazo (1982–1985) and
Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1985–1989), Televisión Boliviana showed greater political plurality, including spaces for the opposition and more objective journalism . The administration of President
Jaime Paz Zamora (1989–1993) continued with this opening. But by then, private television stations began broadcasting clandestinely, and even managed to obtain broadcasting licenses, events that caused a drop in audience for the state network. Around this time, the station was also plagued by abuse, manipulation and censorship incidents. During the first government of President
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (1993–1997), the channel's newscasts were directed by the journalist
Carlos Mesa. The station's programming broadcast a wide variety of journalistic, historical and documentary programs. Some slots were broadcast in indigenous languages. Until the arrival of the first private television stations, Televisión Boliviana was still a partisan television station. The environment changed in 1984, as Siles Zuazo favored freedom of the press, contrary to what the Ministry of Information's stance of television as a medium under state control. The Bolivian economy in 1984 was facing a period of
stagflation, to which the Unidad Democratica Popular government adopted new measures from April 12, 1984, causing the state TV company to cover the new measures. However the station criticized the measures, under the grounds that "such broadcast is an abuse of power of the Government". On April 25, the UDP government fired Eduardo Ascarruz, the manager of Empresa Nacional de Televisión ENTB Canal 7, being replaced by Luis Quintanilla. The dismissal of the official ended up causing indignation in the television station's union towards the Supreme Government. On April 26, 1984, the ENTB workers' union, through an emergency assembly, rejected the dismissal of journalist Eduardo Ascarrúnz and assigned a "politician", proceeding with an indefinite general strike. The unionists accused the Minister of Information, Mario Rueda Peña, of the "arbitrary determination", the general secretary, Felix Espinosa questioned the political militancy of manager Quintanilla with the MIR, an ally of the UDP government. The arrival of democracy also led to the arrival of political pluralism to the network, where at the end of the 1980s proeminent journalists such as Carlos Mesa (who also had a career in private stations) started shaping up the public opinion sector, which in the 90s was already known as the "todólogos" ("know-it-alls"). With the arrival of the second government of
president Hugo Bánzer (1997–2001), the editorial line of Televisión Boliviana took a clear turn to the right. Military parades and national commemorations were often broadcast. News programs avoided mentioning the bloody human rights violations that occurred in the 1970s, during the first Bánzer government. After his death in 2002, his successor,
Jorge Quiroga (2001–2002), the network did not make significant changes. During the second government of President
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (which began in August 2002) an attempt was made to return to a program similar to that of his first term from 1993 to 1997, but the resounding fall of his government with the
Gas War in October 2003 left many projects shelved. In the political turmoil that shook the country in the two years and two months that followed, the station was unable to adopt a defined information line and its programming showed a gradual deterioration that did not improve until the decline of its corporate identity.
Decline and closure of Televisión Boliviana (2005–2009) Since the assumption of the presidency by the first government of
Evo Morales Ayma, in January 2006, the channel has undergone profound changes. One of TVB's projects was the beginning of broadcasts in high definition for the first time in the country. Since 2007, the network has entered into an alliance with the Japanese television station
NHK for the broadcast of documentaries. Due to the costs of maintaining the alliance due to the low budget suffered by the channel, they were removed from the air, as were done
Telesur productions that were broadcast on TVB. The eliminated programming was replaced by the transmission of Bolivian films and events related to works by the Evo Morales government. The network tried to increase the audience and the commercial collection with the incorporation of programs such as
La Justa or continue with the broadcast of programs such as
Bolivia Agropecuaria and
Viajero. Even so, the station caused a huge debt to the Bolivian State, which chose to declare it bankrupt. This fact caused the cessation of operations of the Bolivian National Television Company. On April 15, 2009, through Supreme Decree No. 0074, the "Liquidation of the Empresa Nacional de Televisión Boliviana – ENTB" was declared, and in turn the closure of operations and transfer of equipment and assets of ENTB to the State Company to be created, ending the first television network in the history of Bolivia, 4 months after the 40th anniversary of the start of operations of the state channel. The former network was accumulating losses of US$6 to 8 million. The government created Bolivia TV as a replacement for the former company. In the interim, the channel operated using the name
Canal 7. All of its staff was laid off.
Beginning of Bolivia TV (2009) Supreme Decree No. 0078 determines the creation of the State Television Company called "Bolivia TV"; determine its legal nature, object, heritage; and establish the composition and attributions of its board of directors and its general manager, with legal domicile in the city of
La Paz. The general manager will be appointed by the minister of the presidency through a ministerial resolution. The board of "Bolivia TV" is made up of the ministers of: • Presidency • Development Planning • Economy and Public Finance • Public Works, Services and Housing • Education • Cultures The new station started, as scheduled, on June 1, 2009. On February 15, 2011,
Supreme Decree No. 0793 was enacted, which establishes the creation of the Ministry of Communication and, in turn, the responsibility of appointing the General Manager of Bolivia TV. After the bankruptcy, a new company called
Bolivia TV1 was created, which continued broadcasting on the frequencies previously used by TVB, a few programs of the defunct station continued to be broadcast by the recently inaugurated channel. In addition, the channel began broadcasting 24 hours a day. Viewing figures for Bolivia TV according to the Revista IN survey conducted in 2011 put it at sixth and last place with 5% of the audience share. In 2008, it was in fourth place with 7%, ahead of PAT and Bolivisión. BTV as of 2024 employs more than 270 staff members. The network is starting to adapt to the rise of social media in the country. The network has more than 532,000
TikTok followers; however on
Facebook, it has fewer (55,000). The network gives its social media success to its educational gameshow
La Academía del Saber, whose individual TikTok profile surpassed a million followers.
Launch on DTT and HD signal (2011) Following a memorandum of understanding signed between the governments of Bolivia and Japan, the
ISDB-T standard was selected and the first test users were Bolivia TV and the university stations. Since the end of September 2011, BTV began broadcasting on digital terrestrial television on channel 16 UHF in La Paz, from the La Ceja studios in
El Alto. A month later, in October of the same year, from its experimentation in the Folkloric Entrance of the Oruro Carnival, Bolivia TV launched its own signal in HD. The channel became the first station in
Bolivia to broadcast in high definition. By 2021, it had two high-definition signals.
Bolivia TV 7.1 It is the main channel of the station. It broadcasts in high definition with the same programming that it broadcasts at the Avenida Camacho Studios, La Paz. It does not broadcast regional programming, which is broadcast exclusively by VHF in analog form in the different departments of the country.
Bolivia TV 7.2 It is the second channel of the station. Its programming consists mainly of sporting events, and in the background of national and foreign productions broadcast by the main channel, with the exception of newscasts.
As Televisión Boliviana Before becoming Bolivia TV, Televisión Boliviana had the mission of educating, informing and entertaining and each general manager decided how many hours and which programs were aired. As of 1971, 24% of its programming was made up of entertainment (excluding sports). In the 1970s, TVB produced a miniseries adapted from
Till Eulenspiegel that was later exported to
Paraguay – Bolivian television's first export. In 1974–75, the station broadcast Enfoques, an entertainment program produced by Mario Cucho Vargas. The program invited international stars such as
Julio Iglesias and
Luis Aguilé, aiming to attract greater impact in its viewers, similar to entertainment shows in Argentina. In 1993, Canal 7 was the first media outlet in Bolivia to start its satellite broadcasts, but its terrestrial signal at that time left much to be desired. Having released a new 10 kW transmitter and new equipment donated by the Government of Spain, in a short time they began to show defects, needed spare parts and stopped working. The TVB signal was barely visible. It was in each special event like the
1994 USA World Cup when TVB showed its power and coverage, reaching with its repeaters to places that were not covered by private stations. The World Cup in France in 1998 was the last one broadcast by TV Boliviana, which was made with joint broadcasts together with
ATB. That same year, TVB upgraded its satellite system to digital. to the beginning of 2013, Bolivia TV broadcast children's productions from the
Nelvana catalog but it was not successful, especially in the city of
El Alto due to the claims of social organizations. Faced with this situation, the children's block was eliminated from the programming of the channel. In mid-2013, show business was added to the program, in addition to international fashion events such as
The Fashion Parade at the
Salar de Uyuni. In 2014, BTV's programming was expanded with the transmission of the Baroque Music Concert in Concepción, followed by the concert by Los Kjarkas, the final of the Nacional B, the last friendlies of the Bolivian team against Spain and Greece, and the transmission of the
World Cup 2014. From 2015 to 2018, Bolivia TV broadcast the
UEFA Champions League. Since 2014, it broadcast the
FIFA World Cup in association with
Unitel and
Red Uno. ==Network==