Television in Venezuela began in 1952 when the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez launched the state channel Televisora Nacional, making Venezuela the ninth country in the world to have television. By 1963 a quarter of Venezuelan households had television; a figure rising to 45% by 1969 and 85% by 1982.[1] Telenovelas are popular in Venezuela, and some Venezuelan productions (such as 1992's Cara Sucia) are distributed internationally. Perhaps the best known television show internationally is however President Hugo Chávez' weekly talk show Aló Presidente, which began in 1999. State television in Venezuela has an unusually low audience share, of around 2% to 5%, although the government also makes regular use of cadenas (mandatory interruptions on all channels to show government broadcasts).
The main private television networks are RCTV (launched 1953, losing its terrestrial broadcast licence 2007); Venevisión (1961); Televen (1988); and Globovisión (1994). State television includes Venezolana de Televisión (1964 as a private channel, nationalised in 1974), TVes (2007), ViVe (cultural network, 2003) and teleSUR (Caracas-based pan-Latin American channel sponsored by seven Latin American states, 2005). There are also local community-run television stations such as Televisora Comunitaria del Oeste de Caracas (CatiaTVe, 2001) and a range of regional networks such as Zuliana de Televisión. The Venezuelan government also provides funding to Avila TV (2006), Buena TV and Asamblea Nacional TV (ANTV, network of the National Assembly of Venezuela, 2005).
In recent years, the audience share of private terrestrial broadcasters has fallen from around 80% in 2000 to around 60% in 2010, with the bulk of the lost audience going to cable and satellite broadcasters, which increased audience share from around 17% to around 33% over the same period. State television's share increased from around 2% to 5%, not including the "cadenas."[2]
Venezuela uses the North American analog broadcast system NTSC and in 2009 the Japanese system with the Brazilian improvement ISDB-T was selected.
In Venezuela the use of CATV or Satellite TV is very common and the prices are low. The most important CATV operators are: Inter, Net-Uno, Supercable and HouseTv, while the most important satellite operator is DirecTV. Wide audiences in Venezuela have TV by subscription.
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