Type | Broadcast |
---|---|
Branding | Canal Caracol |
Country | Colombia |
Availability | Colombia |
Founded | 1954 (as a TV production company) 1967 (spun off from Caracol Radio) |
Slogan |
(Spanish) Nos mueve la vida (English) Caracol moves our life |
Broadcast area
|
Colombia |
Owner |
Julio Mario Santo Domingo (Sale pending to PRISA) |
Key people
|
Carlos Alejandro Pérez Dávila, CEO |
Launch date
|
10 July 1998 (as a TV network) |
Affiliates |
Caracol TV Internacional Caracol Telenovelas VMasTV WGEN-TV |
Official website
|
www.caracoltv.com |
Caracol Televisión is a Colombian private national television network, owned by the Santo Domingo Group.
Caracol Televisión started in 1954 when Organización de Radiodifusora Caracol offered to afford national television costs, then state-run, through commercial spots. At that time its board (Fernando Londoño Henao, Cayetano Betancourt, Carlos Sanz de Santamaría, Pedro Navas, and Germán Montoya) started to suggest the possibility of establishing the first television station in Colombia. One year later that idea was accepted and they decided to share the rights with Radiodifusora Nacional, the state-run company operating the Televisora Nacional, the only television station in Colombia at the time, creating TVC (Televisión Comercial Ltda.), a company which lasted two years.
In 1967, Inravisión awarded through a public bidding the then-programadora 45 hours a week; because of this, Caracol Radio spun off Caracol Televisión S. A., having TV shows' marketing and production as its main goal. In 1987 Valores Bavaria group became the main stockholder and prompted a technical and administrative modernization of the company. In the 1990s, prior to becoming a private channel, it, RCN, Producciones PUNCH, Producciones JES, RTI and Datos y Mensajes were the members of OTI Colombia, the group with the license to air the Olympic Games and World Cup.
On November 24, 1997 Caracol Televisión was granted a licence as a "private-operated national channel" for 10 years from Colombia's (CNTV). The other licence went to RCN Televisión. This implied a plan in order to make the infrastructure which was used to produce 10.5 hours a week would have to work to have on air 18 hours a day of general programming since 10 July 1998.
In 2000 Caracol TV (HJCY-TV) strengthened a deal with marketing television company TEPUY, and next year signed a telenovela co-production deal with RTI and Telemundo and a short lived deal with Buena Vista International. In 2002 Caracol TV Internacional was launched.