TVC, formerly Televicentro, is an

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian television channel owned by Grupo El Comercio, itself owned by

Remigio Ángel González Remigio Ángel González (Higueras, Nuevo León, June 14, 1944) is a Mexican-born owner of the Latin American media network Albavisión. He has lived in Miami since 1987. The network (previously named Televideo Services) is named for his wife Alba ...

's Albavisión conglomerate. The channel has existed in its current form since 2016, when González acquired two frequencies without prior government oversight. Its history, however, dates back to 1984, when it operated separately from Channel 4 in Guayaquil.

History

Ortel was founded in early 1984, and its broadcasts on VHF channel 5 started in August of that year. In 1991, the channel was acquired by Remigio Ángel González, who had owned Telesistema (channel 4) in Guayaquil since at least 1983. Under his management, the channel was renamed Maxivisión. The company merged with Telecuatro Guayaquil in 1993, effectively ceasing local origination of content, becoming a relayer of Telesistema. Ortel continued to exist as a separate company. Thanks to revisions in the Ecuadorian media law in 1997, Telecuatro and Ortel were acquired by

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

nian company Prolasa (de facto predecessor of Albavisión) and Belleville Investment, a companyseated in the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

, a tax haven. González is the head figure of both companies. El Comercio was acquired by the group on December 30, 2014, by means of Teglovisión, a company owned by González's nephew. On August 4, 2015, Arcotel assigned two new VHF frequencies for Quito and Guayaquil, both on channel 11. These frequencies would be instrumental for Televicentro to begin its operations. The channel launched almost without prior warning on February 1, 2016, on channel 5 in Quito (displacing RTS to channel 11) and channel 11 in Guayaquil. Early on, on February 3, journalist Andrés Carrión left the channel after receiving a warning from "hidden forces" and criticism from

Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Corr ...

. Carrión later moved to Canal Uno. It was also suggested that the launch of Televicentro was due to "technological testing".Señal al aire de Televicentro no es por concesión de frecuencia sino por prueba tecnológica, dice ministro
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References

External links

official website
{{Ecuadorian television channels Television channels in Ecuador Spanish-language television stations Television channels and stations established in 1984 Television channels and stations established in 2016