Costa Rica Television
Click to enlargeCosta Rica Television has been on for almost 50 years, first bringing private television to many homes in the metropolitan area. The people responsible for this incredible advance in technology were Rene Picado Esquivel and Carlos Manuel Reyes who was in charge of electronics with Televisora de Costa Rica S.A now known as TELETICA. In 1963 they had their first mobile unit making it easier to show live programming and 1973 they change the 16 mm movies format to video cassette movies and color television was now a reality. In time many other Costa Rica TV stations started to show up, during the late 70’s and early 80’s we can recall: Canal 2 which was family focused; Canal 4 that featured the best Venezuelan and Mexican Soap Operas and movies and Canal 19 that brought popular North American shows such as the Bozo the Clown show and Movies. Canal 6 and Canal 7 have been the top broadcasting companies for many years and but Only Teletica Canal 7 has remain as the same company; Canal 6 was acquire by the REPRETEL franchise but still remains on top. Television in Costa Rica stopped limiting its broadcasting to foreign shows in the early 90’s with original TV shows such El Barrio and with the inclusion of the first Music Channel TVA (no longer on the air) live TV with a host was becoming something more usual.
Nowadays, in Costa Rica, satellite TV inclusion almost 15 years ago, opened the door for many cable companies, with a wide variety of choices in cultural, musical, educational as well as entertainment channels, Costa Rica TV has definitely had to fight to keep its place; a good thing keeping in mind that the challenges given by international television have opened the doors for more local shows in struggle of the local companies to beat international programming giving more choices to the audiences and opportunities for local talents to perform. By now the main Channel Stations in Costa Rica are:
REPRETEL: Channels 9, 11, 4 and 6. They broadcast international shows and local series and News, as well as family shows, sport matches and movies. They have been working since 1994 continuously. Their programming includes shows from the U.S, South America, Mexico and some from Europe.
SINART - Canal 13: Has been on the air for almost 30 years and is focused on the Culture and traditions of Costa Rica. They base their programming on made in Costa Rica shows and TV movies; show political debates and shows along with a few international shows mostly from Spain.
UCR - T.V. Canal 15: The Channel of the Costa Rica University is a space for future TV workers to probe their knowledge and gain experience in the Television and production areas. They have many cultural shows and it is managed by UCR students. Their shows are both national and international like news, also life style in the University.
TELETICA- Canal 7: As explained above this was the first TV station in Costa Rica. Nowadays they broadcast hit North American TV shows, family oriented Costa Rica TV shows, sport matches, variety shows and Soap Operas from Costa Rica and Latin America.
Conexion TV - Musica, Deporte: They share signal with the International Sports Station ESPN, but from 12:00 pm to 11:00 pm the have music oriented TV shows classified by genre and rhythm.
In Costa Rica Satellite view presents three main Cable and Satellite TV companies, the have been in business for almost 15 years now and provide the highest end technology in television available including digital TV and internet services. These companies are:
- CABLETICA: Created in June 1991 it is a division of Televisora de Costa Rica and has grown to be one of the top three cable companies in the country.
- AMNET: Is the original Amzak International brand for Latin America. They offer cable TV, Internet connections via Cable and digital TV, as well as the Pay per View service.
- DIRECTV Latin America: Is a multinational company that was established in 1996 to provide Satellite TV to 27 countries in Latin America including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico. With the best service on satellite channels, cable TV, digital TV, pay per view and Playin’ TV (interactive games channels) and enhanced television viewing from all over the world.
