Type Broadcast Founded 1954 Availability Colombia | Branding Caracol Broadcast area Colombia Headquarters Bogotá, Colombia Launch date 10 July 1998 | |
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Slogan (Spanish) Nos mueve la vida(English) It moves our life Owner Julio Mario Santo Domingo(Sale pending to PRISA) Founders Pedro Navas, Carlos Sanz de Santamaría, Fernando Londoño Henao, Germán Montoya, Cayetano Betancourt TV shows Noticias Caracol, Desafío, The White Slave, Tu voz estéreo, Hermanitas Calle Profiles | ||
Caracol Televisión is a Colombian private national television network, owned by the Santo Domingo Group.
Contents
History
Caracol Televisión started in 1954 when Organización de Radiodifusora Caracol offered to afford national television costs, then state-run, through commercial spots. At that time its board (Fernando Londoño Henao, Cayetano Betancourt, Carlos Sanz de Santamaría, Pedro Navas, and Germán Montoya) started to suggest the possibility of establishing the first television station in Colombia. One year later that idea was accepted and they decided to share the rights with Radiodifusora Nacional, the state-run company operating the Televisora Nacional, the only television station in Colombia at the time, creating TVC (Televisión Comercial Ltda.), a company which lasted two years.
In 1967, Inravisión awarded through a public bidding the then-programadora 45 hours a week; because of this, Caracol Radio spun off Caracol Televisión S. A., having TV shows' marketing and production as its main goal. In 1987 Valores Bavaria group became the main stockholder and prompted a technical and administrative modernization of the company. In the 1990s, prior to becoming a private channel, it, RCN, Producciones PUNCH, Producciones JES, RTI and Datos y Mensajes were the members of OTI Colombia, the group with the license to air the Olympic Games and World Cup.
On November 24, 1997 Caracol Televisión was granted a licence as a "private-operated national channel" for 10 years from Colombia's National Television Commission (CNTV). The other licence went to RCN Televisión. This implied a plan in order to make the infrastructure which was used to produce 10.5 hours a week would have to work to have on air 18 hours a day of general programming since 10 July 1998.
In 2000 Caracol TV (HJCY-TV) strengthened a deal with marketing television company TEPUY, and next year signed a telenovela co-production deal with RTI and Telemundo and a short lived deal with Buena Vista International. In 2002 Caracol TV Internacional was launched.
On December 28, 2010, Caracol TV officially started digital broadcasts for Bogotá, Medellín and surrounding areas on channel 14 UHF.
Radio
In July 2012, Caracol TV rented HJMD from Cadena Melodía. The station will become the flagship of the Bluradio network.
WGEN-TV
In December 2005, Caracol TV bought a 25% stake of Miami, Florida television station WGEN-TV. Programming on WGEN includes Colombian and Brazilian telenovelas as well as a news program produced in Colombia. The station also produced and a local version of Desafío 20.06, a reality show similar to Survivor and an original US-produced variety comedy series entitled La Boca Loca de Paul, hosted by Paul Bouche. Some of Caracol TV's telenovelas were remade for MyNetworkTV in the US, such as Desire, based on Mesa Para Tres (Table for Three).