Telecanal

Telecanal is a Chilean privately-owned TV channel, launched on Monday, 5 December 2005, six years and four days after the end of the transmissions of Canal 2, whose broadcast hours required by law were covered by slots paid for by the evangelical ministry VidaVisión. Its offices and studios are located in the Sanhattan neighborhood of Las Condes.

At its launch, Telecanal offered alternative programming for the local industry. However, during its first years of broadcasting it left behind its original offer, reducing its in-house programs and limiting itself to broadcasting foreign programming. Much of the output has already been broadcast by La Red since both channels belong to the Albavisión group; therefore, both are the only broadcast television channels in Chile that have the same owner, even though national legislation and regulatory entities have blocked this ownership situation in other similar cases, including the one that led to the bankruptcy of the previous owner of the channel 2 frequency in 1999.

Its biggest competitors are its sister channel La Red and TV+, being the three channels with the lowest audience reception in the country. It currently airs in Santiago on VHF channel 2, and digital terrestrial television since 2021.

History

Rock & Pop Televisión (1995-1999)

Originally, channel 2 in Santiago was used by the high-power repeater station of Televisión Nacional de Chile operating from Cerro El Roble (border between the Metropolitan Region and the Valparaíso Region) to relay its signal to other localities. This had to be technically modified to give frequencies to the broadcasts of a new channel in Santiago.

The Compañía Chilena de Televisión and Radio Cooperativa Televisión had requested channel 2. La Red withdrew the request in July 1991, since it obtained the channel 4 frequency in Santiago; consequently, the license was granted to Radio Cooperativa after a political agreement in October 1991. However, the start of its operations was delayed several times.

The first idea of the Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones was to develop a news channel, but the national market wasn't ready for that project yet. At the time of the launch of Radio Rock & Pop, from the beginning, it was thought of as a multiplatform project that focused on young people, which would include the radio station, a magazine, and a TV channel.

Since the concession was delayed several times, the deadline for its launch was August 1995. Since Cooperativa lacked audiovisual content production capacity, in 1994 it associated with the production company Estudio Visión (owned by Juan Enrique Forch and Eduardo Bustos) to develop programming for the future station. During that year, a creative programming committee was formed made up of Iván Valenzuela, Marco Silva, María Elena Wood, Alberto Fuguet, Juan Enrique Forch, and Eduardo Bustos.

Channel 2 had an estimated initial investment of US$6 million at the time, equivalent to about US$10.7 million in 2021 (adjusted for inflation). In the field of advertising, the station had sold very well before beginning its operations, mainly due to the power of the radio brand; however, over the first few months, all the sponsors withdrew the compromised advertisement.

Launch (2005–2010)

Following the shutdown of Rock & Pop Television due to economic and audience issues, VidaVisión started to buy Edu Comunicaciones (now Televisión Interactiva), who at the time controlled Vía X, Zona Latina, and ARTV to remain on the air for at least 8 hours per day by law to avoid forfeiture of its signal. As a result, religious programming ended up coping with the full extent of daily transmissions.

In July 2005, Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones, the owner of the frequency, announced that it would sell the channel 2 concession to Inversiones Alfa Tres SA, led by Jaime Cuadrado (former commercial manager of Canal 13 and personal friend of Don Francisco) for CLP 2.7 million; the sale became final in September of that year.

The channel began its official broadcasts on Monday, December 5, 2005. Its broadcasts through cable television began on January 1, 2006, through the networks of VTR and on January 10 on Coltrahue TV, in June, the channel began broadcasting on satellite through Telefónica TV Digital and in December through Gtd, on 23 March 2010, it reached Claro TV's cable network.

Initially, the channel had small live slots of no more than 30 minutes in length, while the bulk of its programming was based on foreign series, cartoons (Telemonitos), films, and telenovelas, mainly from Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. With just one year on air, new programs came to light such as the sports program Como en la radio, the magazine Cocinados, and the talk show Canal Abierto. Among their main faces were Daniel Valenzuela, Carolina Correa, Milton Millas, and Carla Ballero.

In mid-October 2008, as a result of the worldwide financial crisis, the television company decided to remove a large part of its national programming, which was mostly carried out by external producers, leaving its most emblematic program "Cocinados" on the screen, together with Conspiración Copano, Hiperconectados, Pago x ver, Pura noche and Mundo Motor. Its newscast, En Línea, was transferred to 11 pm with a half-hour edition, while the films that occupied the primetime slots in "Cine de Estrellas", were moved to 8 pm.

In 2009, started with the return of Pura Noche but with Alfredo Alonso as its host, who joins the station, as well as Krishna Navas, who later would have her talk show with female themes ("Only them"), along with Pamela Díaz, Liliana Ross and Matilda Svensson. "Jugados" and "Actualidad central" were also created.

As of April 2009, the network's reach increased its coverage towards the Chilean Antarctic.

On 16 November 2009, the station's first late show debuted, "Influencia Humana", which incorporated Pablo Zúñiga into the channel. The space was well received by the public, and great faces of the country were interviewed, such as presenters Felipe Camiroaga and Vivi Kreutzberger.

Early 2010s

In early January 2010, Telecanal first part with a journalist, Sergio Molleda, in a presidential debate Anatel. A few days after the debate made the news "En Línea" stopped broadcasting. In late February, "Human Influence" and canceled weeks later, the same thing happened with "Only They," and again, the programming focused on packaged content.

In September 2010 it began to build a sports area for the transmission of the UEFA Europa League, replacing La Red that broadcast it in the previous season, and Monday through Friday at midnight Hello sports, covering other disciplines issued other than football, like basketball, volleyball and rugby.

In November of that same year, businessman Jaime Cuadrado, then owner of the sign, closed an agreement to sell Telecanal the Mexican, a former executive of Grupo Televisa and former director of Mega Guillermo Canedo White.

In 2011, Telecanal broadcast the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which was played in Denmark, a fact never before seen on Chilean television.

Mid 2010s

In 2013, Telecanal ended with an annual rating of 0.43 rating points, even being surpassed by UCV (which reached 1.3 annual viewing points), the channel less seen in Chilean television. The poor results are explained only in issuing nullspaces packaged programming and live.

In December 2013 a new strip of Mexican telenovelas opened at 21:00, with the premiere of A Family Lucky. With this decision, Telecanal decided to take NCIS, which is issued only on weekends.

Since 1 January 2014, José Manuel Larraín assumed the new executive director of the station.

During May of that year, every Saturday the "Specials of Telecanal" transmitted the national series Picaflor Effect.

Since January, Telecanal began broadcasting "A3D" infomercials from Monday to Sunday, occupying the block from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Following the departure of its programs "A las 11" and "Teletiempo", Telecanal is dedicated only to its "Entertainers" program.

ADN TV

At the beginning of March 2016, national media reported on the project being developed for an open news television channel under the name of the informative radio signal of Ibero Americana Radio Chile - a subsidiary of the Spanish multimedia conglomerate Prisa -, in conjunction with Telecanal and La Red. To the first, I would rent 12 hours of airtime; to the second, a studio and physical, technical and human resources in its television center in Quilín. The channel would operate under the threshold of the company Multimedios GLP, controlled by the radio consortium and Albavisión, which then served only as a joint-venture for the sale of advertising in the media that both companies operated in the country.

The new channel would have information as its forte, with central and current newscasts; in addition to spaces for investigative journalism, interviews, and some for entertainment and culture, all independent of ADN Radio's radio programming, which would not see its programming modified. It would be editorially led by Gerson del Río, and the anchor news conduction would be in charge of Mauricio Hofmann and Mirna Schindler; Its executive director would be the person who held the same position at La Red, Javier Urrutia. Despite this, Telecanal would not disappear completely, since it would transmit the remaining 12 hours (until noon) giving way to ADN TV broadcasts from that hour onwards.

It was made public that, thanks to its alliance with La Red, the new channel would own the rights to broadcast Chilean soccer goals, and given the presence of Telecanal on pay TV, ADN TV would be available on most of the operators. .

ADN TV debuted on 10 June 2016 with the broadcast of Euro 2016 by the radio's sports team: Víctor Cruces or Ignacio Salcedo hosting; stories by Alberto Jesús López "El Trovador del Gol", Patricio Barrera "El Grillo del Gol" and Manuel "Manolo" Fernández; and comments by Danilo Díaz and Sergio Vargas. The matches significantly improved Telecanal's audience, which hovered between 0 and 1 point, finally consolidating by achieving a historic index with peaks of 16 points and an average of 13 points on July 10, during the final match between France and Portugal, surpassing all the competition, even the leading channel of the moment, Mega.

In addition, it broadcast the Chile - Colombia series on 16 and 17 July in the American Zone of the 2016 Davis Cup, again in charge of the channel's sports team, thus achieving a peak of 4 audience points, surpassing at certain times to Channel 13 that showed a weekly summary of the Turkish television series Selin.

The ADN TV project was canceled without further explanation in December 2016.

High-definition signal and entrance to digital terrestrial television

The channel began transmitting in high definition in 2016 through channel 7 of the cable operator Coltrahue Digital of Santa Cruz, stretching its 4:3 signal to this format. On 6 September of that year, Telecanal carried out a broadcast test in 16:9 aspect and 720p resolution – unlike the rest of the Chilean open channels, which broadcast in 1080i – through the Amazonas 4A satellite that covers all of South America. South; Along with the HD signal, a 4:3 SD signal was added and the "1seg" that is used for reception on mobile devices.

It was not until 28 September 2021 that Telecanal officially began broadcasting on TVD through virtual channel 2.1, on the UHF 31 multiplex in Santiago. That same month, the channel began broadcasting the competitions of WWE Raw and SmackDown, after its previous stint on La Red. It also broadcasts International Boxing.

In September 2023, the National Television Council began the administrative sanctioning procedure against Canal Dos S.A, the channel's operating company, due to non-compliance for not starting broadcasts on open digital television of the Telecanal signal in the cities of: Arica (11.1 - 26 UHF), Iquique (12.1 - 41 UHF), Antofagasta (4.1 - 21 UHF), Chuquicamata (8.1 - 23 UHF), Copiapó (5.1 - 41 UHF), San Pedro de Atacama (12.1 - 26 UHF), La Serena and Coquimbo (5.1 - 35 UHF), San José de Maipo (2.1 - 21 UHF), Panguipulli (4.1 - 32 UHF) and Los Muermos (12.1 - 26 UHF).

On 1 November 2023, it arrived to Copiapó on TVD, (5.1 - 41 UHF), being the first region to receive the digital signal from Santiago.

Relaying RT en Español

On 16 June 2025, Telecanal started relaying RT en Español permanently, although the channel is still obliged to continue airing CNTV-mandated cultural programming (airing ''El Conciertazo'' and ''Reino Animal'') and electoral campaigns. The RT en Español website also mentioned its coverage on channel 2.1.

On June 17, UDI deputees Natalia Romero and Gustavo Benavente sent a letter to regulator CNTV showing their concern for the RT relays, as well as its ban in European countries at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and possible ideological issues. Additionally, there is a lack of publicly-accessible information concerning the relays, especially with Telecanal being an Anatel member. The letter also suggests that RT does not respect the Chilean laws regarding journalistic independence. The Russian Embassy in Chile defended its stance under supposed claims of "diversity of expression and opinions", and being comparable to networks such as the BBC, France TV, Deutsche Welle, ABC, NHK, CBC and others. An investigation by Radio Bio-Bio noted that the network was investing US$3 million in expanding the terrestrial relays of its Spanish-language channel in Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica, while Chilean legislators criticized its presence for infringing the law.La polémica llegada del canal ruso RT: críticas apuntan a medio propagandístico y que infringe norma
/ref>

Programming

:''Subject from :Es:Telecanal#Producciones históricas''
:''See also :Pt:Telecanal#Programas & :Fr:Telecanal#Émission''

* '' A las 11'' (Matinal)
* ''En línea'' (Telejornal)
* ''Pura noche'' (Juguete)
* ''Telemonitos'' (Infantil)
* ''Pago x ver'' (Concurso)
* ''Agenda central'' (Debate)

Controversy

In July 2005, ''Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones'' (former frequency owner) sold the signal to ''Alfa Tres''. Jaime Cuadrado, owner of ''Alfa Tres'', is the former commercial manager of Canal 13 and a personal friend of Mario Kreuzberger ('' Don Francisco (television host)''). Alejandro Martinez, owner of VidaVisión, initiated a lawsuit against ''Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones'' alleging fraud.

Also, Jaime Cuadrado has ties with Mexican media mogul Remigio Ángel González, owner of Red Televisión. It has even been stated that González is the actual owner of the station. Ownership of more than one television station is forbidden by Chilean law to avoid a horizontal monopoly.

References

{{Nationwide Chilean television channels

Television networks in Chile
Television stations in Chile
Spanish-language television stations
Television channels and stations established in 2005
Mass media in Santiago, Chile
Companies based in Santiago, Chile
2005 establishments in Chile