OPEN TELEVISION IN CHILE

In October 2007 50 years will have passed since the first experimental broadcast from the television channel of the Catholic University of Valparaiso (UCV). The reason was the inauguration of a new scientific pavilion, the one that was seen in a screen located in the Victoria Square, located to 1,350 meters of the Central House of the UCV. Later, on August 21st 1959, the Catholic University of Santiago inaugurated the television channel that began to broadcast in frequency 2 and soon after it changed to channel 13. The 4 of November of 1960 began to broadcast the frequency 9 (today channel 11), station in charge of the University of Chile.

The universities were then those that gave the initial impulse to an industry that has experienced a high technological development and now is very close to the digital era. What started off like a university experience, followed later by the appearance of the State with National Television -12 of December of 1968- gave way in the Nineties to the irruption of private companies in the audiovisual world -1990- with the arrival of cable and satellite -1988-.

In Santiago eight open television channels exists that cover all the transmission band of VHF with frequencies 2.4.5.7, 9.11.13 and 22. Strictly speaking, already there are five television stations in private hands  (although the signal of channel 11 follows still belong legally to the University of Chile, its administration and benefits corresponds to a private company).

Open television channels
- Channel 2, Telecanal: it started on August 16 of 1995 like Rock&Pop oriented mainly to the youth. Today, is called Telecanal and since 2005 the engineer Jaime Cuadrado has 99% of ownership. 
- Channel 4, La Red: it appeared on May 17th 1991. Now belongs to the Mexican entrepreneur Angel González. 
- Channel 5, Catholic University of Valparaiso (UCV): it is the oldest of the channels of the chilean television since it started transmissions on    October 5 of 1957.
- Channel 7, National Television: it has been operating since December 12th 1969. By law is an independent company of the State that must be finance by itself. 
- Channel 9, Megavisión: it is the first private channel of television. It transmits from the October 22 of 1990.
- Channel 11, Chilevisión: it started on November 4 of 1960. Although its frequency is still in the hands of the University of Chile, the use belongs from the April 15th 2005 to a private society that is managed by the entrepreneur Sebastián Piñera.
- Channel 13, Catholic University: created on August 21 of 1959.
- Channel 22, Más TV: it exists since January 2 of 1995 and after belonging to diverse private hands, today it is property of the Pavilion of the Construction.

Pay channels of cable and satellite

In 1988 cable television arrived in Chile. The first operator was Intercom. Later appeared Metropolis that later bought Intercom and it became Metropolis-Intercom. In 1993 are added more channels to the programming of TV by cable like HBO and Cinecanal. That same year appears VTR in the market, company that on 2004 was merged with Metropolis. Another cable operator, SkyTV was bought on 2005 by DirectTV. According to a survey of the Fifth National Survey of Television on 2005, 35.9% of the population have TV cable and a 0.8% has satellite television.

Local and regional Television

Local television is denominated as the one that cover what is not exceeding  the limits of the region, whereas the regional one is that whose transmission does not exceed the three regions. These television channels that appeared in the decade of the 90’s are linked to independent universities, schools, city halls, producers or societies. Many of these stations serve the community and they face the hard challenge that is to be day by day on the air. The last reports from CNTV indicates that there are 113 local channels throughout all Chile.

Independent production

In the decade of the 90’s they begin to appeared in the market the first independent producers in our country. In 1994 56 projects were introduced to the Found-CNTV, number that contrast and demonstrates the increase of this industry because, for example, in the year 2004, 158 proposals originating mainly from independent producers.

Smaller costs and more creativity would be the advantages that characterize the independent producers of television. In synthesis, these are the ideas that are perceived in the televising industry at the time of analyzing the growth of the external production, that after timidly beginning in decade of the 90’s by the call of Television Nacional (TVN), in the last years has experienced a growth that makes to be present in all the channels of the open television and even in the pay television.

More information in Magazine CNTV Julio 2005