Canal 13 (Argentina)

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Canal 13 is an Argentine television network.

LS 85 TV, Canal 13 Buenos Aires began its transmissions in 1960. The station was licensed to Proartel S.A., owned by Cuban Goar Mestre, the United States network CBS and the Time Life company. By the mid-1960s, Editorial Atlántida bought CBS and Time-Life stocks, and the station started to compete strongly with the other two privately owned broadcasting channels of Buenos Aires. They too, underwent a similar process of nationalization.

In those years the station produced some of Argentine television's greatest ever hits: shows such as Viendo a Biondi, a humor show centered on Pepe Biondi's characters; La Familia Falcón, with the renown Argentinian actor Pedro Quartucci, La Tuerca, a humor show based on sketches, and the great success of Telecataplúm, starring an innovative group of Uruguayan comedians.

In 1974, Perón's government nationalized Canal 13 along with the other two private-owned stations of the nation's capital, supposedly with the aim of carrying out a European-style media policy, where television was monopolised (or almost) by the state. When the armed forces took power in 1976, the station administration was surrendered to the Navy, a situation that lasted until 1983, when democratic rule was re-established. The station, however, remained under public administration until 1990.

After privatisation, Canal 13 went to Arte Televisivo Argentino S.A., a company popularly known as Artear. Its major shareholder is the company that publishes the daily newspaper "Clarín". Since then, the station has remained second on ratings in Buenos Aires, occasionally rising to first place. Since 1996 the station works in association with the independent production company Pol-Ka, owned by the actor Adrián Suar, who in 2002 became programming manager of the channel. Pol-Ka produces diverse fictional shows for the station, being notable in recent years Gasoleros, Campeones, Son Amores, Padre Coraje and Sos mi vida, among others.