Televisión Española

Televisión Española (TVE) is the national state-owned public-service television broadcaster in Spain. TVE belongs to the RTVE Corporation which has overall responsibility for national public-service radio and television under a Parliament-appointed General Manager who, as well as being answerable to a Board of Directors, reports to an all-party committee of the national parliament, as provided for in the Public Radio and Television Law of 2006.

TVE's activities were previously financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subsidies from the national government, but since 16 February 2012 it's been supported by subsidies only.

Terrestrial (VHF and UHF) channels

TVE began broadcasting on 28 October 1956 on VHF. A second UHF channel was added on 15, first known as the UHF channel, while the original VHF channel was simply known as TVE or the first channel. Later, in the 80s they were renamed as TVE-1 and TVE-2 respectively, and TVE-1 was moved to the UHF frequency. Later they would be known as La Primera and La 2. The two services are today known as La 1 (La 1 on Channel 1) and La 2 (La 2 on Channel 2). Until the 1980s, they were the only channels in Spain. After the introduction of regional and commercial channels, they lost a certain number of viewers, although still maintain good ratings for some programs, such as the news program Telediario.

TVE has often been accused of bias in favour of whichever party is in government, and recognition by viewers of its "official status" has been demonstrated each year by audience figures for the Christmas Eve message of King Juan Carlos I. His message is broadcast simultaneously by almost every Spanish channel, but TVE has always received the largest share of viewers.

Other channels

• 24h: Better known as Canal 24 Horas, this is the third channel of TVE. It is a 24-hour news international channel which began broadcasting on 15 September 1997.
• Teledeporte: Better known as only Teledeporte or Teledeporte TVE, it broadcasts news related to sports and live or recorded sport events. It is the fourth channel of TVE.
• Clan: Better known as Clan or Clan TVE, this is a children's and teenager's channel, which offers different kinds of cartoons and series for the young audience. The first year, it shared its broadcast signal with TVE 50 Años, a channel created to memorize the history of TVE in its 50 years of existence, called before 2006 as TVE Nostalgia or Canal Nostalgia. Clan become a 24-hour service when TVE 50 Años ended on 1 January 2007. It is the fifth channel of this broadcaster.
• Canal Parlamento: This is a politic channel.
• TVE HD: TV channel with programs in High Definition.
• TVE Internacional is a 24 hour channel available throughout Europe and other parts of the world. The channel features mostly broadcasts from TVE 24h and a selection of programming from other TVE channels.

All channels above except for Cultural.es and TVE Clásico, are available on digital terrestrial television (DTT). However, these two services will be available via DTT in 2010 and both channels will undergo changes:

TVE Docu was re-branded as TVE Cultural.es (also called Canal Cultural or Culturales), on 23 April 2009. It will feature programmes about Spanish culture, to Spain and the rest of the world.

TVE Clásico will become TVE High Definition (or TVE HD), a special channel created to offer High Definition versions of the most important TV programmes of RTVE.

Televisión Española also transmits an eighth service to all the world, called TVE (channel), but historically known as TVE Internacional. The role of this channel is to offer the most watched and significant programmes of TVE to all the world (including Spain) by satellite broadcasts. For this, it has three different streams (for legal reasons): TVE - Europa (or TVE Internacional para Europa, África, Asia y Oceanía) for Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania; and TVE - América I (or TVE Internacional para América I) and TVE - América II (or TVE Internacional para América II) for the different places in all America.

News services

Both the international channel and La 1 have regular news-bulletins marketed under the Telediario name; Telediario has three editions: the breakfast edition, 15.00 (local time) edition and 21.00 edition. La 1 also broadcasts regional news bulletins at 14:00. La 2 also has its own national news bulletin, "La 2 Noticias" ("The 2 News"), which began as a breakfast news-programme in the mid-1990s and was later revamped as a nightly news bulletin at 22.00.

External links

• Official Site (Spanish)