54 Facts About RCTV

RCTV continued to broadcast via pay television on RCTV Internacional.

RCTV was the third television network to begin operations in Venezuela after Televisora Nacional and Televisa, seen on channels five and four, respectively, and the second commercial network after Televisa.

In December 1954, RCTV began broadcasting simultaneously on channels two, seven and ten.

In early 1955, RCTV began to transmit exclusively to Caracas, on channel two, from a new transmitting station located in the neighborhood of La Colina in which it remained the main frequency until the network's closure on 27 May 2007 after the government of president Hugo Chavez refused to renew the broadcasting license.

Later, RCTV put into service their repeater antenna in Curimagua, Falcon State, so that their signal could reach the entire state and the Netherlands Antilles on channel 10.

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In September 1956, RCTV installed an antenna in Pariata, to serve what is Vargas State.

In 1957, RCTV expanded their coverage to reach almost all of Venezuela, offering an uninterrupted signal of high quality.

In January 1957, RCTV improved their installations at Curimagua and were able to offer an uninterrupted and higher quality signal to the Falcon State and the Netherlands Antilles.

On 31 October 1957, RCTV began its first service from Puerto La Cruz to cover the northeastern region of Venezuela on channel 3 via relay.

In 1958, after the fall of dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez on 23 January of that year, RCTV began airing La Voz de la Revolucion, the first political talk show to air in Venezuela.

On 17 September 1961, RCTV put into use their first videotape system, a technology which permitted the consolidation of recordings of sounds and images.

Also in 1962, RCTV began broadcasts to the state of Tachira and the Norte de Santander Department in Colombia from an transmitter located in the high barren plain of El Zumbador.

On 24 August 1963, RCTV was given the exclusive rights to broadcast the inauguration of the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge over Lake Maracaibo.

On this day, RCTV launched their first transmission via microwave transmitters from the antennas in Curimagua and Maracaibo.

On every 17 December between the years 1963 and 1969, RCTV presented, and reran by popular demand, a made-for-TV movie that re-created the death of Simon Bolivar.

In 1964, RCTV began using their new transmitters located in the mountains southeast of Puerto la Cruz and Barcelona to offer a higher quality signal by way of channel three to Isla Margarita, Cumana, Barcelona, Puerto La Cruz, and surrounding areas in the states of Sucre and Anzoategui.

Later, RCTV inaugurated the transmitters on Pico Terepaima, to the south of Barquisimeto, to serve with quality the states of Lara, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa by way of channel three, and the one in Maracaibo, covering with better image and sound the state Zulia.

On 16 May 1965, RCTV placed into service their transmitters at the Merida cable car.

Thanks to this equipment, RCTV's signal covered the entire Andean region of Venezuela.

In 1968, RCTV launched Sabado Espectacular, a variety show created and hosted by Amador Bendayan.

On 17 July 1969, RCTV brought to their viewers the first international broadcast: a news conference with the Apollo 11 American astronauts that were traveling to the moon the next day.

In 1970, RCTV began using the first chromatic signals during the broadcast of the World Cup in Mexico .

On 16 November 1971, Producciones Cinematograficas Paramaconi, C A, a company affiliated with RCTV that specializes in cinematography, was established.

On 30 August 1973, RCTV inaugurated a transmitting station in Punta de Mulatos, between La Guaira and Macuto, to offer a better signal in the region.

On 23 June 1974, RCTV signed on new transmitters officially debuting broadcasts via Channel 3 on Ciudad Bolivar, and in July the Puerto Ordaz transmitter signed on, bringing network programming on Channel 2 in that area.

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In 1975, RCTV began selling broadcasting rights to some of its programs to television companies overseas, with some of them being translated and dubbed into more than 15 languages and transmitted in more than 40 countries.

Also in 1975, RCTV launched Alerta, a controversial current affairs program that took a look into various social situations in Venezuela.

On 31 March 1976, RCTV's transmissions were suspended for 72 hours by the first government of Carlos Andres Perez for issuing "false and tendacious news", in regard to the kidnapping of the American businessman William Niehous, then president of Owens-Illinois Venezuela.

In 1981, RCTV was closed for 24 hours for airing "a segment of pornographic film".

In 1984, RCTV was admonished for ridiculing "in a humiliating way" President Luis Herrera Campins and his wife.

Later that year, RCTV launched another major production, called La Dama de Rosa, which in 1991 was seen by seven million people in Spain alone.

RCTV had served as RCTV's president for 34 years, retiring from the network only a year before his death.

In 1989, RCTV was closed for 24 hours by the second government of Carlos Andres Perez for airing advertisements for cigarettes in defiance of the 1980 presidential decrees.

In 1990, RCTV became the second TV network in Venezuela to use computer-generated imagery for its on-air idents.

In 1993, for the first time, RCTV combined cartoons with real actors in one of their productions.

In 1994 and 1995, with the objective to obtain the best sharpness and resolution of colors, RCTV inaugurated the first studio that utilized video component technology.

In 1996 upon its major on-air revamp, RCTV switched from using an analog signal to a digital signal, the first for a Venezuelan TV network.

In 1997, RCTV was the first network in Latin America that automated their informative services, in which they adopted the format DVC Pro.

In 1999, RCTV purchased the Digital Betacam System, which allowed the use of cinematographic techniques in the illumination of outdoor shots.

In 2000, RCTV was the official Venezuelan broadcaster for the internationally televised special called 2000 Today, headed by the BBC of the UK.

On 17 June 2006, the Autonomous Service of Intellectual Property, issued an administrative resolution in which it cancelled the use of the trademark "Radio Caracas Television", arguing that RCTV has not used this name for at least three consecutive years and thus should no longer have the right to it.

RCTV has been accused of inciting the 2002 failed coup d'etat that briefly overthrew Venezuela's government.

The Venezuelan government did not renew RCTV's broadcasting license which was up for renewal in May 2007 and the Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered their broadcast equipment to be temporarily seized and made available to the new government-owned TVes station, which commenced transmissions the next day after RCTV was shut down.

RCTV has denied any wrongdoing and argued that no trial had been conducted that linked the network to the coup attempt.

Week after the closure, RCTV started broadcasting its newscast to Latin America, first through Colombia's Caracol Television and since then to other countries around the world.

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RCTV reminded them that their concessions operated at the pleasure of the state and that if they "went too far", their concessions could be cancelled at any time.

The government says that the non-renewal is caused by RCTV's alleged support for the unconstitutional 2002 coup attempt against Chavez's democratically elected government.

RCTV may continue broadcasting over cable or DTH systems when its license expires, but the government will take over the equipment, studios and even the master control for their use in the new station it has created on 27 May 2007.

Many workers and artists from other networks, including Venevision, had to use the last hours of RCTV to give their opinion since they were not allowed at their own companies.

RCTV argues that no trial has been conducted that links the network to the coup attempt.

Those networks became less critical of Chavez, prompting opponents to say the action against RCTV was evidence that Chavez defined media outlets critical of his government as the enemy, according to the New York Times.

RCTV argued that the channel's license would expire in 2022 rather than 2007.

RCTV lost its terrestrial broadcast licence, but it was not out of business.

On 7 July 2007, DirecTV Latin America and RCTV signed an agreement for the satellite service to air RCTV's programming to satellite subscribers in Venezuela and other parts of the world.