TELEVEN
Launched	3 July 1988
Owned by	Corporación TELEVEN, C.A. (an Empresas Carmero company)
Slogan	El canal que más se ve (The most watched channel)
Country	Venezuela
Language	Spanish
Headquarters	Caracas, Distrito Capital, Venezuela
Website	Televen Site
Availability
Terrestrial
Local VHF Venezuela	Channel 10 (Caracas
Satellite
DirecTV (Venezuela)	Channel 106
Cable
Net Uno	Channels May Vary
Intercable (Venezuela)	4
SuperCable	Channels May Vary
Planet Cable	Channels May Vary

Televen (a portmanteau for Televisión de Venezuela) is a private Venezuelan national television network headquartered on the Caracas neighborhood of Horizonte. For this reason it's also called 'Canal de Horizonte'. Televen was inaugurated as the ‘’TELEVEN Corporation’’ (Corporación TELEVEN, S.A) on July 3 1988 by Omar Camero and Radioven, S.A. As an alternative for the two-leading-private TV Networks on Venezuela, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) and Venevisión, Televen distanced itself from this trend and made a different oriented programming in some cases the middle classes who do not usually watch TV and it was open and being composed of talk shows, sports, movies, a full range series, mainly U.S., And Brazilian telenovelas, Colombian and Mexican and in the 1990's, anime. Televen is currently the most watched television channel on Venezuela, with an audience share of 53% (nationwide)^{[citation needed]}.

History[link]

On February 12, 1988, a new television channel began their test signal on the frequency of channel 10 in Caracas; they broadcasted music videos which were accompanied by a red sphere that symbolized the number ten. On July 3, this channel officially went on the air under the name Televen.

On July 10, 1988, Televen made their first commercial broadcast with the movie Mandela, and during the first commercial break, 25 advertisements were aired, making it the longest commercial break in Venezuelan television history.

Televen's first original productions were Teledeporte, which presented a summary of sporting events, and VH-10, which was dedicated to music.

On March 17, at the main offices of the National Institute of Parks of Venezuela (Inparques), representatives from Omnivisión and Televen, signed an agreement which guaranteed the environmental protection of the El Cuño hill, a place where both networks had installed antennas.

In the month of November, the press department of Televen informed the media that their signal would go on the air in Zulia and Falcón on NTSC-M channel A13. On December 20, they expanded their signal to Guarenas and Guatire.

In 1989, Televen became the first television network in Venezuela to air nudity during prime time.

On January 18, 1989, Omar Camero Zamora, President of Televen, requested a news conference to clarify that the network had not been sold, but 33% of the company's stock had been negotiated by a group of businessmen judicially managed by Pedro Tinoco.

In March 1989, the Vice-president of Production of Televen, Jorge Font, announced the acquisition of the Cedros and Macaracuay theaters by the network for the use of developing television studios in them.^[1]

With the help of investors (including Venezuelan television personality Guillermo "Fantastico" Gonzalez) in the early 1990s, Televen quickly expanded their coverage to all of Venezuela and managed to attract a larger audience share than the state-owned network, Venezolana de Televisión, but it still remained far behind RCTV and Venevisión.

On February 10, 1992, in light of the suspension of constitutional guarantees as a result of the events of February 4th, Televen suspended their opinion programs.

On June 15, 1993, Televen put into service their largest antenna –a tower with the height of 150 meters, 24 transmission panels, and 30 kilowatts of power– which allowed their signal to reach all of Zulia.

Starting in 1994, Televen began airing 24 hours a day.

In 1996, the Camero family retook control of Televen and, thanks to the investments of their stock holders, the network expanded and began transmitting its signal digitally by way of the Intelsat 709 satellite.^[1]

In 1997, Televen launched their webpage and later won the ANDA award in the "New Advertising Technologies" category.

Televen purchased eight new transmitters to reach new markets in Maturín, Valle de la Pascua, Mérida, Valencia, and Puerto Cabello. Televen also modernized their existing transmitters in Caracas, Coro, Vargas, Maracaibo, Maracay, Puerto Ordaz, Puerto La Cruz, and Margarita.

In 2004, Televen began producing more shows and they restructured their prime time schedule.

Televen has been known to occasionally export some of their programs overseas. One of these included Chamokropolis, which was similar to show that Televen also aired, called Nubeluz, which came from Peru.

Televen, along with Venevisión, successfully snatched the rights to broadcasting Venezuelan national baseball games from RCTV and received the right to broadcast baseball games from U.S. Major League Baseball.

Televen once aired the popular Japanese cartoons (also known as "anime") Saint Seiya (Los Caballeros Del Zodiaco), Slam Dunk, Magic Knight Rayearth (Las Guerreras Magicas), Sailor Moon, Slayers (Los Justicieros), and Captain Tsubasa (Super Campeones) among other popular titles.

Televen also aired TV Series from the 90s like Rescue 911 (Rescate 911), The Simpsons (Los Simpsons), The Nanny (La Ninera), Full House (Tres por Tres), Saved by the Bell (Salvados por la Campana), The Wonder Years (Los Anos Maravillosos), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (El Principe del Rap), Home Improvement (Mejorando la Casa), Clueless, Hang Time (Estrellas Escolares), Blossom, Doogie Howser M.D., Boy Meets World (Aprendiendo a Vivir), Who's The Boss (Quien Manda a Quien), Friends, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Sabrina, la bruja Adolescente), Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Freakazoid (Fenomenoide) and other TV Shows.

Televen also aired Club Disney a block of Disney Cartoons like Darkwing Duck (El Pato Darkwing), Ducktales (Pato Aventuras), Goof Troop (La Tropa Goofy), 101 Dalmatians (101 Dalmatas), Doug (Doug de Disney), Bonkers, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers and other Disney Cartoons.

Televen also aired Cartoons Shows like Earthworm Jim (Jim el Gusano), Freakazoid (Fenomenoide), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Las Tortugas Ninjas), Dennis the Menace (Daniel el Travieso), Poochini, The ThunderCats (Los ThunderCats), Scooby Doo, The Smurfs (Los Pitufos), Popeye the Sailor (Popeye El Marino), Merrie Melodies (Fantasias Animadas de Ayer y Hoy), Tom & Jerry (Tom y Jerry), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (El Capitan Planeta), Spider-Man (El Hombre Arana), Ren and Stimpy (El Show de Ren y Stimpy), Rugrats (Aventuras en Panales), Hey Arnold (Oye! Arnold), 3 Friends and Jerry (Tres Amigos y Jerry), Speed Racer (Meteoro) and other Cartoons Shows.

Televen also aired Classic sitcoms and dramas like Batman, The Green Hornet (El Avispon Verde), Bewitched (Hechizada), I Dream of Jeannie (Mi Bella Genio), The Munsters (Los Munsters), I Love Lucy (Yo Amo a Lucy), Gilligan's Island (La Isla de Gilligan), Airwolf (Lobo del Aire), Bonanza, Combat! (Combate), Star Trek: The Next Generation (Viaje a las Estrellas), Baywatch (Guardianes de la Bahia) and some other TV Series.

In May 2012 the channel makes a deal with Nickelodeon will broadcast the season: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 17, 18, and 19 of the Power Rangers series

Headquarters[link]

Thus, with investment of 22 million dollars and the strong will of its shareholders, its human resources, customers and advertisers, TELEVEN achieve the objectives. In 1999, TELEVEN shows a growth of 100%. With the latest technology, with its signal covers the entire country. In 2000, significant investments are made definitely driving the growth of the channel, both domestically and internationally.

With technological innovations, framed at the beginning of a new century, TELEVEN meets one of the most important goals in its history "The new headquarters, planned building entirely with digital technology, becoming the country's most modern building in terms of TV systems are concerned.^[2]

Criticism[link]

Televen was neutral in their political views until the arrival of Hugo Chávez, in which it became a critic of the government. After the 2004 recall referendum, Televen has attempted to return to its neutral status by cancelling the political opinion program hosted by journalist Marta Colomina, who is a 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 Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

In 2005, Televen presented evidence to the Venezuelan courts of an alleged deal involving advertising costs between its principal competitors, RCTV and Venevisión.^[3]

Because Televen decided to become neutral, many in the Venezuelan Opposition and Anti-Chávez groups criticizes Televen of submitting to Chávez. Opposition criticism increased against Televen during the closure of RCTV. Many in the opposition criticized Televen of not supporting freedom of speech because Televen, and its rival Venevisión did not speak out against the closure of RCTV. Many view Televen secretly supported the closure since it would make it the second most watched television network^{[citation needed]}, originally it was third after Venevisión (second most watched) and RCTV (the most watched channel). Nowadays by 2010, Televen became the most watched TV Network in Venezuela, surpassing Venevision. The Telemundo's Soap Opera Más Sabe el Diablo is the most watched serial in the country.

News and broadcasts[link]

El Noticiero Televen (The Televen Newscast) is the current newscast of Televen.^[4] It is broadcasted four times a day (6:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 11:00 PM), except for Sundays, when it only came on during important events such as elections.

See also[link]

• List of Venezuelan over-the-air television networks and stations

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site (Spanish)