Inravisión

The Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión (Inravisión) was Colombia's national public broadcasting organization between 1964 and 2004. It was created by Decree 3267 of 20 December 1963, which declared that from 1 April 1964 the country's public radio and television broadcasting service would be provided by Inravisión, "a public company with financial, administrative, and legal autonomy".

Among Inravisión's functions were to organize contracts with the programadoras, the companies who produced programs and aired them on the national networks; develop and execute the plans and projects adopted by the Colombian Ministry of Communications; and offer official educational, cultural and informational services through the country's radio and television infrastructure. In 1993, it also assumed the duties of screening programs, which programadoras were required to send 72 hours in advance, for purposes of determining if the programs were suitable for viewing by minors.[1]

In the 1990s, Inravisión was wracked by continual technical problems, which included a 30-minute nationwide outage of all three channels in June 1995, described at the time as "the biggest rough patch in Inravisión's 41-year history";[2] commercials that didn't air in correct color; signal reception deficiencies, even in major cities such as Cali; poorly calibrated cameras; leaks in the studio buildings; commercials airing for the incorrect newscast; and a 77-minute outage of all three channels in December 1995.[3]

Inravisión was liquidated at the end of 2004,[4] during the first administration (2002–2006) of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Contributing factors to the decision included the company's growing pension liabilities (600 billion Colombian pesos),[5][6] its out-of-date technology, and the programadoras crisis, which left Canal Uno in a failed financial state and forced the state to operate Canal A as Canal Institucional. At its closure, Inravisión had 411 employees. Audiovisuales, the state programadora, was also liquidated.

It was succeeded by Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC).

References

  1. ↑ "Programas de TV siguen en el aire." El Tiempo 31 March 1993: link
  2. ↑ "Inravisión en la era de blanco y negro." El Tiempo 27 November 1995: link
  3. ↑ "Más de una hora sin la televisión." El Tiempo 11 December 1995: link
  4. ↑ (Spanish) "Siete días: Inravisión, a liquidación." El Tiempo 31 October 2004: link
  5. ↑ "La muerte de Inravisión." El Tiempo 29 October 2004: link
  6. ↑ Luz Monroy, Martha."Inravisión, qué sigue ahora." El Tiempo 27 October 2004: link

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