Schedule of the first Colombian television broadcast •
National Anthem -
Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia • Speech by
President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla •
Tele News • Recital:
Violin:
Frank Preuss,
Piano:
Hilda Adler • Documentary •
El niño del pantano, TV adaptation of a
tale by
Bernardo Romero Lozano, produced by
Gaspar Árias • Film •
Estampas colombianas, comical sketch by Álvaro Monroy • Film sent by the
United Nations: Report with Colombians in
New York City • Ballet from the
Kiril Pikieris Academy • Tele-final • National Anthem Television in Colombia was inaugurated on 13 June 1954 during the government of General
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who became impressed with the new invention during a visit to
Nazi Germany as a
military attaché. Rojas imported
Siemens and
DuMont equipment and hired
Cuban technicians to set up a
TV station in time for the commemoration of Rojas's first year in office. A test broadcast was made 1 May 1954 covering
Bogotá and
Manizales. using the
NTSC standard. Color television had already been introduced in October 1973, when
programadora Cenpro Televisión made a color broadcast during an education seminar with
Japanese-made equipment. The inauguration and the first match of the
1974 FIFA World Cup were broadcast live in color, but they could be seen in color only on big screens in Bogotá and Cali. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Colombian national television system had three national channels:
Cadena Uno,
Cadena Dos and
Cadena Tres. The first two worked under the concessions system while the Cadena Tres (later renamed to
Señal Colombia) remained under complete government control and focused on cultural and educational programming, and was the producer of major national holiday coverage for the Inravision system. In 1984, the first of the regional networks in the country was created,
Teleantioquia which signed on the next year. Other regional networks, such as
Telecaribe and
Telepacífico, were created by the then-Minister of Communications
Noemí Sanín. In the 1990s
Teveandina,
Telecafé, and
Teleislas would join them. 1987 saw the introduction of cable television to the country after bidding in 1985.
TV Cable Bogotá, the country's first cable system, began operations at the end of December 1987. Cheaper
satellite dishes systems, which would end up being collectively known as
perubólicas during its 1990s heyday, proliferated all over the country and, due to legal issues, some of them would regularise by merging and becoming cable operators. The 1991 bid (for the 1992-1997 period) triggered competitiveness as a first step toward privatization. Cadena Dos became
Canal A, and the programming companies, which numbered 24 at the time, received from that point slots on one channel to compete among each other for
ratings. Cadena Uno would be rebranded
Canal Uno in January 1998. The
Colombian Constitution of 1991 and a law in 1995 created the
Comisión Nacional de Television (CNTV,
National Television Commission), an autonomous entity in charge of policies for public television and regulation of television contents. The CNTV started working in 1995. In March 1993, more ratings information came to Colombian screens. A court decision forced Inravisión to ban sexual and violent scenes from the
franja familiar (family block).
Programadoras were now required to state if the program was appropriate for minors to view. In addition,
programadoras had to submit their material to Inravisión 72 hours in advance to determine its suitability; television was classified in two types of
franjas, including the
franja infantil and
franja familiar (which determined the content rating of the programs to be aired in that block) as well as ratings for the profitability and value of the timeslots, ranging from AAA (prime time) to D (overnight hours). In 1997, the government through the CNTV gave away licences to set up privately owned television networks. These licences were granted to
Cadena radial colombiana (Caracol TV) and
Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN TV), which had started as radio networks and were in the hands of the main economic groups of Colombia. Both private stations began functioning as TV networks on 10 July 1998. The recession of the Colombian economy during the late 1990s weakened the state-run networks and the
programadoras. But the companies that produced the networks' shows also had to face a new landscape of Colombian television, as Caracol and RCN now dominated. Ratings fell steadily as the
programadoras became merely production companies for Caracol or RCN or disappeared outright. Names famous in Colombian television, like PUNCH, Cenpro,
Producciones JES (named for its founder Julio E. Sánchez Venegas), the famous
Noticiero 24 Horas, and
TeVecine, left the public airwaves. Others required financial intervention to stay afloat. The
programadoras had continued working independently and never collaborated to establish a better program service against the newly organized privately owned networks. By 2003, Canal A was almost entirely filled with cultural and educational programs produced by the government-run
programadora (Audiovisuales). In 2003, the only production company left on Canal A was transferred to Canal Uno, which left four
programadoras there to receive an equal share of the channel's program slots. Canal A then was turned into the
Canal Institucional and became under total control of the government. Later in 2004, Inravisión would be
liquidated and
Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia was created. In 2009 a licence for a third national private television network was to be granted by the Colombian government. Spanish groups
PRISA and
Planeta, and
Venezuelan tycoon
Gustavo Cisneros were bidding, each of them allied with Colombian shareholders, for the licence. As of July 2020, there is still no third private channel in Colombia. == Digital television ==