RCN Televisión

Canal RCN (Radio Cadena Nacional) is a Colombian

free-to-air television network. It is a Colombian open Radio Canal Nacional
television channel, belonging to the Ardila Lülle
Organization. It was founded as a television content
production company on March 23, 1967, and found its
broadcasts as an independent channel on July 10, 1998. Its
main shareholder is Carlos Ardila Lülle. It produced Yo soy
Betty, la fea, one of the most successful Colombian
telenovelas.

Contents
Type Free-to-air television
History network
The 1980s
Country Colombia
The 1990s
Headquarters Bogotá, Colombia
Terrestrial TV Channel
1990s Programming
2000s Language(s) Spanish
2010s Picture 1080i 16:9 HDTV
Private Television Network format (NTSC)

Programming (downscaled to 16:9

480i for the SDTV feed)
References
Ownership
External links
Owner Organización Ardila
Lülle
History Sister NTN24
channels Win Sports
RCN Television was created as a television arm of the RCN
Radio network. In 1967 RCN Radio took part in the RCN Nuestra Tele
bidding for spaces in the official television network, getting Internacional
one hour a day which was split into two series: one made in RCN Novelas
Colombia named El Hogar (The Home) and the American
television series Bewitched. In 1973 RCN Radio and its History
subsidiary RCN Television were purchased by Carlos Founded March 23, 1967 (as a
Ardila Lülle, who three years later relaunched RCN as a television programmer)
television production company (or programadora) with
Launched July 10, 1998 (as a
several spaces into the official channels' schedule. RCN
was the first company that broadcast a television program television channel)
both live and in color, the 1980 Miss Colombia beauty Founder Carlos Ardila Lülle
contest; since that year RCN has held the rights to Links
broadcast this event.
Website www.canalrcn.com (htt
p://www.canalrcn.com)
The 1980s Availability
RCN produced television series with high remembrance Terrestrial
among viewers like Cusumbo and El Taita in 1984, which Analog Listings may vary
was the first Colombian telenovela filmed in exterior
VHF/UHF
locations. In August 1988, RCN became part of OTI
Colombia, gaining the rights to broadcast the Olympic Digital UHF Channel 15.1 (HD)

Games and the FIFA World Cup. Other members included Channel 15.2 (HD2)

Caracol, RTI, Producciones PUNCH, Producciones JES Channel 15.7 (SD)

and Datos y Mensajes.[1]

The 1990s

Along with Caracol TV and R.T.I. RCN became one of the major television production companies
in Colombia, producing not only telenovelas and game shows, but also sports events and news.
Nevertheless, the telenovelas gave to RCN an outstanding recognition, first in Latin America and
in places as distant as Vietnam and Hungary. Among this productions were La Potra Zaina, Las
Juanas and the international hit Café, con aroma de mujer, which not only have been
broadcast in several countries across the globe but have been remade several times, with
Destilando Amor being the newest version. Within the telenovelas they produced in the 1990s,
there were productions like La Otra Raya del Tigre, La Vorágine, La Casa de las dos Palmas,
Azucar, Momposina and Hombres, all of them raising parts of the Colombian culture and showing
it to the world.

Terrestrial TV Channel

1990s

On July 10, 1998, RCN went on the air as an independent signal with disastrous results compared
to Caracol Televisión, a situation that stabilized when Carlos Ardila Lülle took over the direction of
the channel.

Its first broadcast of the channel began at 9:00 pm with the first broadcast of RCN News.

The first telenovela that the channel RCN Televisión premiered was La madre in 1998, starring
Margarita Rosa de Francisco and Héctor de Malba and directed by Pepe Sánchez.

2000s

In 2000 it began broadcasting its programming 24 hours a day.

In 2002 it premiered it's first reality show, which was Protagonistas de novela, hosted by María
Cecilia Botero and recorded from Miami, United States.

Upon reaching ten years of its operation as a private channel, Canal RCN's signal reached 97% of
the Colombian geography with the launch of 13 stations covering 24 municipalities in Santander,
Antioquia, Guaviare, Risaralda, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander, Boyacá and the State Táchira
in Venezuela.

On November 3, 2008, its sister channel called NTN24 went on the air, a channel that broadcasts
news 24 hours a day, with spaces for opinion, analysis, economics, sports, entertainment and
specialized topics.
As of August 5, 2009, the creation of RCN Telenovelas, RCN Televisión's novel channel through
the subscription television network, was announced. This is the direct competitor of Novelas
Caracol of the company Caracol Televisión.

2010s

As of January 2011 and with the arrival of DTT, RCN Televisión began broadcasting in HD.

In 2012 he began to broadcast his first telenovela in HD as it was "Pobres Rico" with the
protagonists Juan Pablo Raba and Maria Helena Doering.

On April 30, 2014, RCN Televisión decided to suspend its HD signal transmitted by the main pay
television operators in Colombia.[2]

On July 16, 2015, 21st Century Fox announced that it had sold its stake in MundoFox to RCN
Televisión, giving full ownership. The president of MundoFox, Herman López stated that the
company was proud to have started MundoFox with RCN Televisión and is confident that they will
realize the signal's full potential.

On July 28, 2015, MundoFox began to progressively introduce a new identity as MundoMax. The
rebrand was officially completed on August 13 of that same year, coinciding with the third
anniversary of the launch of the signal. In addition, RCN Televisión announced that it had
canceled the network's news broadcasts.

On July 31, 2015, the president of RCN Televisión, Ibra Morales, stated regarding the decision that
"although we have canceled Noticias MundoFox, RCN Televisión continues its dedication to
bringing quality news coverage to the Hispanic community in the United States, in a vibrant and
dynamic way. " RCN Televisión hopes to make MundoMax the most important Hispanic network
in the United States in a short time. In 2016, the MundoMax signal was closed, due to low levels of
audience ratings and reliability.

In May 2016, two years after the withdrawal of its HD signal from subscription television
operators in Colombia, the signal was unified and broadcast in SD and HD with a 16: 9 aspect
ratio.

In November of that same year, RCN bought the newspaper La República, the country's first
specialized media outlet for economic and business news, which also owns a multimedia television
channel.

On March 30, 2017, three years after its withdrawal from the HD signal in several cable operators,
the chain reactivated it after a Supreme Court ruling, depending on the country's coverage.

This television network has produced many hits that have been sold around the world, such as: I'm
ugly Betty ; Woman-fragranced coffee; The mob's widow ; Three Miracles ; The last happy
marriage; Chepe Fortuna ; The Pola; Clean hand ; Bride for two ; The filly Zaina ; La María ;
Francisco the mathematician , Los Reyes, Until silver do us part and Sincere love, among other
productions .

In January 2018, it was announced by various means that the channel would be contemplating

Private Television Network

In 1995 the Colombian government opened up a bidding for two private television networks, each
one operating with one channel. RCN took part of this bidding, getting one of the two licenses, the
other went to Caracol TV. In 1997 RCN started construction on the infrastructure to launch the
television channel. On 10 July 1998, RCN aired for the first time as a private channel. In this first
stage, RCN launched two telenovelas -La Madre and Carolina Barrantes- and improved the news
bulletins, nevertheless, in the first year, RCN -and Caracol- only had a fraction of the Colombian
television audience, because the broadcasting infrastructure was not complete and the production
companies which remained in the official channels launched a solid strategy to keep the viewers.

In only the second semester of 1999 and the first one of 2000, RCN and Caracol got to beat the
public channels, taking more of the 90 percent of the viewers. RCN's first hits were Francisco El
Matemático ("Francisco, the Math Teacher"), a teen-oriented series, which aired on Saturday
nights, but thanks to its success was moved to prime time Mondays to Fridays, and El Fiscal (The
Prosecutor), an action oriented series.

Since the successes of Francisco El Matemático and El Fiscal, RCN launched successful
telenovelas which let it take the first place in the Colombian most watched networks: Me Llaman
Lolita ("My Name is Lolita"), and Yo soy Betty, la Fea, that became the most successful telenovela
ever in Colombia, topping Café con aroma de mujer. Betty la fea has since had its format and
storyline licensed by RCN to multiple broadcasters worldwide in several languages.

Following the international trend, RCN launched in 2003 its first reality show: Protagonistas de
Novela, which became the most watched show that year in Colombia, its second season, despite
not getting as high ratings as the first season got, kept it in first place in the most watched shows in
Colombia. Following Protagonistas de Novelas, RCN launched La Isla de los Famosos (a
Colombian version of Survivor), which became the most watched show in RCN in 2004, and the
second season named Una Aventura Pirata (A Pirate Adventure) got again the place of most
watched show in Colombia. The RCN's telenovelas those years were perceived to be of only
middling quality, not until with the launching of Los Reyes (a Colombian version of Argentinian
series Los Roldán) and Fernando Gaitan's Hasta que la plata nos separe (Until the Money
Divides Us) that a telenovela from RCN got high ratings to become the most watched show in
Colombia. But despite those years the telenovelas did not put the network in the first place, the
Colombian version of The X Factor did, becoming the number one show in Colombia in 2006, with
two seasons, and a third and a fourth named Factor XS, where the competitors are kids instead of
adults. RCN gained some criticism against the fact that the network was getting ratings from the
use of kids in a reality show, but the parents of the kids dismissed this affirmation.

RCN got a ratings hit with 2007 telenovelas Pura Sangre and La Hija del Mariachi, followed
by the 2008 telenovelas, El Último Matrimonio Feliz and Los Protegidos.

In July 2008, RCN became the first TV network in Colombia to offer online domestic English-
language news updates under the brand, "RCN News" and RCN News in English. The full news
updates would air on RCN's international network, "TV Colombia" in the mornings. Near the end
of 2010, "RCN News in English" was phased out and began to offer only English-language
international news updates for RCN's sister network, "Nuestra Tele Noticias 24" under the brand
"news.NTN24.com". Plans for the format change began to surface in July 2010 after the main
producer Brian Andrews involuntarily left the country in May after doing a report in El Cerrito,
Valle del Cauca. National press coverage followed the incident. By this time he had become
nationally well-known not only for producing national English-language news updates but for
having done voice-overs for on-air advertisements for RCN's coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
in South Africa as a lemur known as "Monocuco". He was known for saying "Monocuco, su avena y
su pitillo, compadre" in broken Spanish.

Teasers for the latest news update air during the midday "Noticias RCN" newscast during segment
transitions. The teaser introduction is always in Spanish, while the teaser itself is in English. Even
with the brand name and format changes, teasers continue to air during the "Noticias RCN"
midday newscasts in an attempt to continue to compete in the Colombian TV market. Teasers
however included "Noticias RCN" graphics but used a "news.NTN24.com" end card. Although
"Nuestra Tele Noticias 24" is an international news channel, "news.NTN24.com" focuses more on
headlines from the "Americas" with the motto of "Latin America's News In English" Morning,
afternoon and evening news updates were posted daily. News updates were recorded in Bogotá
and Miami with occasional updates from Berlin and New York City. Along with posting news
updates on their website, "news.NTN24.com" relies heavily on their Facebook and Twitter pages to
notify viewers on new updates. In February 2011, the brand name changed to "NTN24News.com"
and the website layout changed to accommodate a larger video display showcasing the latest news
update. As of late 2012, NTN24 News provides mostly news produced from wire services like
Reuters and very little original reporting.

Programming
RCN presently operates on a 22-hour schedule of regular network programming, and its signal is
the same throughout the country, with no regional variations in the schedule, which starts in the
early morning (4:00 am) with reruns of previously aired telenovelas, the morning is covered with
breakfast television (Mañana Express), (Buen día, Colombia), with a break for news, the news
returns at 12:30 pm and the rest of the afternoon is taken by domestic and foreign telenovelas until
7:00 pm with the news bulletin, and at 8:00 pm the prime time starts with domestic telenovelas
until 10:30 pm; the night schedule is occupied by news and editorial TV shows (i.e. La Noche).

References
1. "OTI planeó bien su propio partido." El Tiempo 18 July 1994:link (http://www.eltiempo.com/arc
hivo/documento/MAM-153915)
2. "RCN suspends HD broadcasts on TV operators pay in Colombia" (http://www.comunidad-ola.
com/portal/index.php/telecomunicaciones/operadores/8164-rcn-tv-hd-suspende-emision-en-op
eradores-de-tv-paga).

External links
Official Site (http://www.canalrcn.com/) (in Spanish)
Noticias RCN (https://archive.is/20040729114051/http://www.noticiasrcn.com.co/) (in Spanish)
NTN24 News (http://www.ntn24.com/)
TV Colombia (http://www.tvcolombia.com/) (in Spanish)
RCN Radio - Cadena Básica (http://www.rcn.com.co/) (in Spanish)

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