TELEVISION

THE TELEVISION IN SANTIAGO

The television in Santiago is on a rapid grow since its introduction during the late of the 60's.

HISTORY

THE EARLY YEARS
The first TV Broadcast from Santiago was on 1969 when the Bermudez' family opened a TV station, the first in color of the country, named Color Vision. Then, during 1970's the station was moved to the capital city of Santo Domingo were it began to broadcast until now. Then, on 1983 appeared the first Local TV station with the name of CIBAO TV CLUB. It consisted of a system of cable without cable with 6 channels downloaded via satellite. Years later, the television broadcast was reintroduced on the city during the Central American And Caribbean Games in which Santiago was the place of the main event. The channel was called "La OTRA TV", and only lasted until the game's closure. A month later on the same year, Cibao Channel 7 was on the air live from Santiago. Because of it, the television of Santiago was reborn and the fever of "being on TV" became notorious since that time. At the beginning of the 90's appeared more local channels causing the TV broadcast in Santiago a competitive business.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CIBAO CHANNEL 7
Unfortunately there was difficult times across the Santiago Television. The financial problems and the big competition
from the national networks provoked many channels to cut personnel and to rerun programs taped from international networks. The major loss was the forced demise of Cibao Channel 7 due to a new regulation which the national TV station be place under the same number on the entire Dominican territories. Prior of it the networks were seen under one
channel number on the south and with another numbers on the north area. Because of it, there were two channels that were disadvantaged for this double channel numbering. It were Cibao Channel 7 and TV13. Cibao Channel 7 could broadcast under the channel 7 only on the north area because another channel named RAHINTEL was occupying the same
channel on the south area. The other channel was TV 13 that had the same problem, it could only broadcast on the south area under the channel 13, but couldn't do it on the north because another channel named TELEANTILLAS occupied the referred channel. On 1996 a new law caused all the network to broadcast under the same number in the entire country. It caused the exclusion of CIBAO CHANNEL 7 and the inclusion of TV 13 on the TV lineup channels 2 to 13. Another problem
Cibao Channel 7 had was since it was owned by the same owners of RAHINTEL channel, the Dominican Telecommunication Institute sued them of have owned three frequencies, a legal problem that was darkened because the major administrator of both channel was on jail for political corruption. After the unification of channel entered in effect, Cibao 7 and Rahintel shared programming time block. It only lasted until 1999 when Rahintel was sold to another company whose new owners changed it onto ANTENA LATINA with a complete programming that left Cibao Channel 7 out of picture. The personnel
and the equipment of the now disappeared channel were moved to another new channel named Super Cibao TV broadcasting on channel 55.
 

THE NEW CHANNELS

The Television in Santiago began to grow more when appeared new channels. Since Cibao Channel 7 was on the VHF range (until 1999) the other channels appeared on the UHF range. The majorities of the new TV station surged in Santiago were created during the 90's decade. On 1993, appeared TELEUNION on channel 15 and 17. Then, on 1994 appeared TELEUNIVERSO on channel 29. Both, TELEUNION and TELEUNIVERSO began to broadcast nationally in the country. TELEUNION began to broadcast on channel 45 on both cable and broadcast on the entire country. It caused a competition over television stations on Santiago city. Another addition was the new channel named TELEMEDIOS DOMINICANO on channel 25, that appeared on 1999 and is property of the Bermudez families, the same owner of Color Vision channel 9 in Santo Domingo. Beginning the new millennium, appeared more channels in the city such as MEGAVISION on channel 43, CNC Noticias on channel 20, LAGUNA TELEVISION on channel 28, and TELECANAL on channel 38. There are another channel without name on channel 12, which is operating on a demo broadcast for a while and is planning to launch soon as a regular channel. In addition, Cibao TV Club has its own local broadcast on channel 53. After its demise, Cibao channel 7 was moved onto a new channel number 55 and changed its name onto Super Cibao TV. Of all these channels mentioned only 3 of them  are national broadcast while the others has local and varied programming.

CHANGES BETWEEN 2002 AND THE PRESENT OF THE LOCAL TV

Years later, there were few new channels on the city. Some of them changed their names and logos while few of the previously mentioned station went off the air or changed their names and programming offers. Such examples are that LAGUNA TELEVISION and CNC Noticias went off the air later on 2003. TeleRegion USA was renamed VIRUS TV and changed its programming to sport events coverage such as MLB baseball, NBA and the Local Dominican Winter Baseball League combined with some comentaries programs and movies. Tele Union, Megavision and Tele Universo changed their logos and programming. There were new channels such as MERKA TV and the recently new TELE MILENIO. There is also another channel named TELE CONTACTO transmiting on channel 57 on UHF.  Not all the channels are carried by the Cable Providers on the city even though these station can be seen over air for free.

SATELLITE TV FROM SANTIAGO

Another change of the local TV of the city is its broadcasting via Satellite to the rest of the world.

TELE UNIVERSO channel 29 began its satellite broadcasting on 2005. Their premises are to reach the US spectrums  so the channel can be seen by the large Dominican community across the country specially on New York area. There is a plan to create a multicast named TELE UNIVERSO USA which will have the original programming from channel 29(except commercials) with some programs produced on New York to be seen internationally and on the Dominican Republic. This project still on test for a while. The channel is waiting to get accepted by a satellite and cable provider so they can begin their broadcasts. TELE UNIVERSO  began to broadcast to Puerto Rico and virgin islands via satellite.

TELE UNION and MEGAVISION, Channels 45 and 43, began to broadcast via satellite since 2006. They are using the satellite PAS R1. Anyone who has a TVRO or FTA Antenna can watch those channels as well their radio stations.

Telecommunication Index

2004 - 2007 Juan A.Cardenes