A transitional Chilean TV
Despite that the first television station in Chile was established in Valparaiso, a port city two hours distant from Santiago, the capital, broadcasting is a highly centralized industry and this feature has been consolidating since the early 1990s. “The transition initiated a period of major transformation, with the introduction of privately owned commercial broadcasting and cable television. The advent of these new outlets consolidated a U.S.-style commercial model, stimulated cross-media ownership, and opened Chilean television to foreign investors for the first time. By 2000, Chilean television had been integrated into the globalizing structures of transnational communication conglomerates” (Bresnahan, 2003: 55). In fact, this trend was evident very early in the political transition to the democracy. By then, the idea of a future technological convergence also appeared as how the media system would look like soon: “the connection between television, computer, and telephone, seems to be one of the keys of the future interactivity on media” (Ministerio Secretaría General de Gobierno, 1994: 7). There are four conjunctures we want to highlight as key to map how privatization and trans-nationalization has actually taken place in Chilean television industry since 1990s. The first one is the launching of the first private company operating broadcast licenses and what it meant for the whole industry: Megavisión went on air in October 1990 and La Red on May 1991. Both enterprises were the consequences of changes in the regulatory frame contemplated by the Constitution of 1980 but especially by the legal reform at the very end of the dictatorship (BCN, 1989) that actually allowed private companies and not only public and university stations, anymore. This also opened up the door to horizontal concentration of media ownership. For example, Copesa, the company who owns one of the two main newspapers in Chile, acquired a quarter of La Red’s company as soon as the private station was launched. The extension and dimension of this trend would be later amplified with bigger mergers in the 2010s. In the beginning of the 1990s, the new players also shuffled the deck offering cheaper advertising prices, outsourcing services that traditionally were produced within the stations, such news, and doing so, expanding independent production companies’ sector; and the likes. The second feature of the trend of privatization and trans-nationalization of the Chilean television industry is the arrival of foreign corporations as investors and partners of local TV companies. Firstly, international broadcasting chains demonstrated their interest in the Chilean market opening offices in Santiago, the capital, to serve the region. That was the case of Venevisión, that later becomes the partner of the Universidad de Chile in its university station, as we will explain below. But the first international corporation that launched in a Chilean television station was the Mexican company Televisa, when it bought 49 percent of Megavisión, the company owned by the Claro holding in 1991, a partnership that remained until 2002. Televisa was and still be the largest media company in Latin America and its partnership with Megavisión was part of a regional effort in which it bought outlets in other Latin American countries, including broadcasting and magazines. In 1999, Albavisión, owned by the Mexican businessman Ángel González who runs TV Azteca in México and with a wide presence in Latin American media companies, became partner in La Red buying 75 percent of the company. Corporatization in university television adopted at least two paths: The increasing of self-funding …show more content…
Basically, this model of public television approved legally in 1992 and put in motion since then is based upon self-funding and public goals’ requirements, as we explained above. “The predominance of commercial television was reinforced by the expansion of cable and satellite television […].Cable began with hundreds of local companies operating independently, but the industry consolidated rapidly. Today, just two cable providers, Metropolis Intercom and VTR, control 95 percent of the national cable market, making cable Chile's most concentrated medium […].Satellite television is also a transnational venture, led by SKY-Chile (Bresnahan, 2003: 57). The broadcasting companies have also deployed commercial and corporate strategies in order to expand to pay TV, segmenting its offer, focusing in segmented audiences as well as enhancing advertising
Despite that the first television station in Chile was established in Valparaiso, a port city two hours distant from Santiago, the capital, broadcasting is a highly centralized industry and this feature has been consolidating since the early 1990s. “The transition initiated a period of major transformation, with the introduction of privately owned commercial broadcasting and cable television. The advent of these new outlets consolidated a U.S.-style commercial model, stimulated cross-media ownership, and opened Chilean television to foreign investors for the first time. By 2000, Chilean television had been integrated into the globalizing structures of transnational communication conglomerates” (Bresnahan, 2003: 55). In fact, this trend was evident very early in the political transition to the democracy. By then, the idea of a future technological convergence also appeared as how the media system would look like soon: “the connection between television, computer, and telephone, seems to be one of the keys of the future interactivity on media” (Ministerio Secretaría General de Gobierno, 1994: 7). There are four conjunctures we want to highlight as key to map how privatization and trans-nationalization has actually taken place in Chilean television industry since 1990s. The first one is the launching of the first private company operating broadcast licenses and what it meant for the whole industry: Megavisión went on air in October 1990 and La Red on May 1991. Both enterprises were the consequences of changes in the regulatory frame contemplated by the Constitution of 1980 but especially by the legal reform at the very end of the dictatorship (BCN, 1989) that actually allowed private companies and not only public and university stations, anymore. This also opened up the door to horizontal concentration of media ownership. For example, Copesa, the company who owns one of the two main newspapers in Chile, acquired a quarter of La Red’s company as soon as the private station was launched. The extension and dimension of this trend would be later amplified with bigger mergers in the 2010s. In the beginning of the 1990s, the new players also shuffled the deck offering cheaper advertising prices, outsourcing services that traditionally were produced within the stations, such news, and doing so, expanding independent production companies’ sector; and the likes. The second feature of the trend of privatization and trans-nationalization of the Chilean television industry is the arrival of foreign corporations as investors and partners of local TV companies. Firstly, international broadcasting chains demonstrated their interest in the Chilean market opening offices in Santiago, the capital, to serve the region. That was the case of Venevisión, that later becomes the partner of the Universidad de Chile in its university station, as we will explain below. But the first international corporation that launched in a Chilean television station was the Mexican company Televisa, when it bought 49 percent of Megavisión, the company owned by the Claro holding in 1991, a partnership that remained until 2002. Televisa was and still be the largest media company in Latin America and its partnership with Megavisión was part of a regional effort in which it bought outlets in other Latin American countries, including broadcasting and magazines. In 1999, Albavisión, owned by the Mexican businessman Ángel González who runs TV Azteca in México and with a wide presence in Latin American media companies, became partner in La Red buying 75 percent of the company. Corporatization in university television adopted at least two paths: The increasing of self-funding …show more content…
Basically, this model of public television approved legally in 1992 and put in motion since then is based upon self-funding and public goals’ requirements, as we explained above. “The predominance of commercial television was reinforced by the expansion of cable and satellite television […].Cable began with hundreds of local companies operating independently, but the industry consolidated rapidly. Today, just two cable providers, Metropolis Intercom and VTR, control 95 percent of the national cable market, making cable Chile's most concentrated medium […].Satellite television is also a transnational venture, led by SKY-Chile (Bresnahan, 2003: 57). The broadcasting companies have also deployed commercial and corporate strategies in order to expand to pay TV, segmenting its offer, focusing in segmented audiences as well as enhancing advertising