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The story
Founded by Eduardo Frei Montalva on Jan 31, 1969.1
The origins of television in Chile took ground after the promulgation of the Television Law 7,039 on 28 October 1958, which was the first legislation of its kind in that country. This regulation was decreed and implemented by the government of then President Jorge Alessandri given the need to regulate the only three existing channels in the national territory: Canal 13, Canal 9 and UCV Television, which at that time were university property and therefore were private broadcasters.
The essential need to own a channel belonging to the Chilean State took relevance from the 1960s, as the great challenge that the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva wanted to face, believing ideally, the existence of a public television station with national coverage, capable of transmitting in a territory of large geographical features. To this end, a limited liability company was created whose original partners were the entrepreneurship agency CORFO, the production company Chilefilms and Entel, all of which were public companies at the time, establishing Televisión Nacional de Chile on 31 January 1969 through the telecommunications trunk network of that country and a series of test transmissions that remained until several years later.
Establishment
The first regional station established by Televisión Nacional de Chile was Arica's channel 7, with the support of the Board of Advancement of Arica (Junta de Adelanto de Arica), initiating its broadcast on 12 December 1968 with provisional studios located in the Edificio Plaza and its transmitter located then in the Morro de Arica. It was officially inaugurated on the same day by President Eduardo Frei Montalva, counting only on programming relayed from Santiago. Subsequently, on 1 February 1969, the broadcast of channel 6 of Punta Arenas began with an inauguration attended by President Eduardo Frei Montalva, as well as the Intendant of Magallanes, Mateo Martinic. The day before, 31 January, was the day TVN was officially incorporated as a public enterprise, it is still marked as the birthday of the network.
Initial expansion
On 21 May 1969, Talca began to receive TVN broadcasts on channel 10 directly from Santiago, although the Santiago channel would not be officially inaugurated until some months later. On 15 July 1969, the broadcast of channel 6 of Antofagasta was officially inaugurated, making some local programs and receiving programming from Santiago with some days of delay. Finally, on 18 September of that year, on Independence Day, TVN in Santiago on channel 7 signed on to cover Independence Day celebrations, and is still the flagship station, providing network-produced live coverage of national events, which are occasionally simulcast by other stations nationwide. This channel had previously and experimentally broadcast Chile's matches in the Davis Cup that year, the presidential message to Congress of 21 May (Navy Day) and the arrival of man on the Moon that July.
Establishment and initial studios
Regular broadcasts of Televisión Nacional began officially in Santiago on Independence Day, on 18 September 1969, covering 6 of the 25 provinces of the national territory at the time, and having stable programming with more than twelve hours of daily broadcast, although unlike what was expected, operating under the model of subsidiaries or associated channels in the provinces. Initially, the first studios of the new network were concentrated in a house leased to the family of the poet Vicente Huidobro, located at the intersections of Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Avenue (Alameda) and San Martín Street, near the Torre Entel. They later moved to one side of the Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral and finally, the then-new permanent studios were inaugurated on 20 August 1970 in Providencia.
Expansion across Chile
The expansion of the main signal was carried out in Iquique on 23 May 1970 on channel 10, while on 2 July, TVN was launched in Calama and Chuquicamata, also on channel 10. In August of the same year, the expansion of the network included Valdivia on channel 3, Osorno on channel 5, Puerto Montt on channel 4, and Ancud on channel 7. Subsequently, its expansion would reach new locations, such as Coyhaique on 21 May 1971, La Serena and Coquimbo on channel 4 in June 1972, and Castro on channel 10 in early 1973. TVN, already positioned as a means of information at the beginning of that decade, had to be ordered by Law 17,377 of 1970, which provided legal recognition to the station and made it "public", since Law 7039 of 1958 did not contemplate this.
Usage as a propaganda tool
Originally, the network's mission was to be a pluralistic and independent media of the current government, which was intended to "integrate, inform, entertain and give culture to the Chilean family", as proposed by the Ministry of Education and the group of professionals who directed TVN. In later years, the governments of President Salvador Allende initially and later dictator, Augusto Pinochet, used the channel as a means of spreading propaganda and political ideology to support their governments and ideologies.
Temporary closure, occupation by Canal 13, and reopening
On 11 September 1973, after the coup d'état in the morning, Televisión Nacional did not start broadcasting during the day and the studios were closed for three days. There was also an assault on the headquarters, where abundant amounts of audiovisual material were burned by the military, including a large part of the records of the first years of broadcast. During the three days it was closed, Canal 13 decided to occupy TVN's national network, because it was the only one authorized to broadcast after the coup d'état. After resuming the broadcast, it became the official television network of the new military dictatorship with informative management and strong control in the programming, granting an advantage in audiences to Canal 13 news programme Teletrece, which was considered "more liberal". In January 1975, it opened a station in Easter Island.
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Colour television
The first experimental colour broadcast in Chile was developed by Televisión Nacional in the final night of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival on 6 February 1978. However, Decree 480, which was in force since 10 September 1976, restricted the import of colour television sets. This regulation, promulgated by Augusto Pinochet, was abolished on 10 April 1978, with the promulgation of a new resolution, ending the restrictions and therefore officially beginning broadcasts in color, adopting the NTSC format from the United States as the official system. At the time of the authorization and start-up, a large part of the network's programming was already in place, and programmes such as La cafetera voladora were fully developed with this technology. This allowed the use of innumerable special effects. It astonished the children of the time and could extend until 1982, setting a precedent in the production of programmes of this type in Chile.
Advances and reform
During Pinochet's regime, TVN's network was one of the most extensive of the Americas, possessing, as of 1985, 112 transmitting stations, from Arica to Puerto Williams, covering 97% of Chile's area.
Throughout the 1980s, Televisión Nacional grew with diverse programmes and technological advances. It became the first Chilean television network to broadcast its programming via satellite, released its second channel in 1986, and inaugurated its international service in 1989. However, despite all the technical achievements, the company is criticized for its newscast, 60 Minutos, by misrepresenting the news and information that every day reverberated society during this period.
In addition to the loss of credibility, prestige, and audience, this led to the reorganization and rethinking the mission and identity of Televisión Nacional at times of political instability in Chile, as the last months of the regime were being developed, therefore, in democracy, the company seeks to be reformed and the new government authorities were prepared to make all kinds of changes.
1990–2000: Return to democracy and new organisation model
With the arrival of the 1990s and the return to democracy, under the mandate of President Patricio Aylwin, he decreed the second Law of Television 19,132 of 1992. This was debated widely between the government and opposition, consecrating the publicly owned network like an autonomous company with legal personality in its own right and establishing that its assets must be managed by a board of directors, whose designation involved the President of the Republic and the Senate, as well as a representative of the staff.
This legislation sought to transform TVN into a media, autonomous, pluralistic, and representative, achieving the original objective proposed at the outset of programmatic content impartiality trying to have independence from the government. Another factor was the complementation of a self-financing system, not receiving public funds. Subsequently, the second channel, Canal 9, was acquired by businessman Ricardo Claro and converted into Red Televisiva Megavisión (Mega).
Further advances
With the new organisation model, TVN achieved major accomplishments, such as the creation of new regional television centres, the creation of the online service, TVN.cl, in 1998, the first experimental broadcast in high definition in 1999, and a complete remodeling the Santiago headquarters in 2000, whose first stage was inaugurated in 2002 and the second stage in 2005.
Expansion of audiences (2000–2015)
TVN received the so-called "new millennium" with the special program 2000 Hoy (2000 today) that was broadcast in various segments during the day of 31 December 1999 and featured the participation of various faces of the channel. The space broadcast live the arrival of the year 2000 from different parts of the world and during the night after the message on the national network by President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, a musical show was broadcast from the center of Santiago to await the new year in Chile. Since then, the success of the channel continued at the end of the 1990s, and with the arrival of 2000, several programs became popular, such as the telenovela Romané, which obtained 50 audience points in its final episode. Additionally, that year it also broadcast the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
On the afternoon of 19 December 2000, the resignation of René Cortázar from his position as executive director was announced, after a controversy surrounding the episode La CIA en Chile of the Informe Especial program that detailed the intervention of the Central Agency of US intelligence during the government of President Salvador Allende. Before the broadcast, some board members asked the executive director to intervene. Cortázar requested modifications in the program to the press director, Jaime Moreno, but the latter refused and finally, the program was broadcast in its entirety in November of that year. This caused the abrupt departure of René Cortázar, despite the fact that during his tenure in his last year, TVN experienced a period of economic prosperity with profits in excess of three billion pesos.
From Wikipedia’s article on Televisión Nacional de Chile, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3