Television was introduced to Panama extra-officially in 1956 with the start of SCN in the Panama Canal Zone and officially on March 14, 1960, with the launch of RPC Televisión. Currently Corporación MEDCOM and TVN Media dominate the landscape.
History
Early years With the support of American engineers, RPC Televisión started broadcasting on March 14, 1960, owned by Radio Programas Continentales. Its inaugural acts had the participation of President Ernesto de la Guardia, as well as other political personalities of the time. It broadcast from 4:30pm to 11pm, with an abundant quantity of live programs and two news bulletins. There was also coverage of the 1960 presidential elections, held in May of that year. A supposed appearance of candidate Chiari led to the appearance of a second television channel. Upon winning the 1960 elections, the plan to launch their station gained impulse. Since September 1959, Harmodio Arias Madrid has gained the license to operate on channel 2, but the station never made it to air. Some suggest that Arias lost the rights to the station but others say that Arias couldn't launch his license on time. Roberto Chiari took the occasion to set up a station on channel 2, Televisora Nacional, on April 23, 1962, whose first commercial name was Tevedos. The station had technical support from ABC International Television Inc. with a heavy emphasis on musical shows and American imports. It broadcast from 2pm to midnight, having a half-hour news bulletin at 10pm. With two television stations (TVN-2 and RPC-4) joining the extant AFRTS station SCN-8, the Panamanian television market began to stabilize. On November 1, 1964, a regional television station in Chiriquí Province, Tele-Barú, started broadcasting. However, the station shut down on January 4, 1967, due to lack of viability. Competition between RPC and TVN was made in several ways: who had the better imports, expansion of the coverage area and updated recording and transmission technologies. TVN had expanded to the provinces of Coclé, Herrera, Los Santos and Venegas in 1965 and in 1968, Chiriquí. RPC had covered all of Panama by the end of the decade.
The coup and color TV Following the 1968 Panamanian coup d'état, new technologies were being implemented. In the early 1970s, live sporting events became a possibility thanks to satellite technologies, while TVN became the first in Panama to broadcast in color in 1972. That same year, the two Panamanian networks broadcast a sum of 180 hours and 45 minutes per week, with 71.6% consisting of imports and the remaining 28.4% produced in Panama. A closed circuit educational television station started operations in November 1973 in the University of Panama before becoming a channel in its own right, Televisión Educativa Experimental, the current SERTV, on January 22, 1978, on channel 6, later moving to channel 11.
New legislation Changes to the legislation were enacted in 1980, breaking the commercial monopoly of the Eleta and Chiari families. The passing of Law 36 in the Official Gazette in 1980 gave licenses to Panavisión del Istmo, of Vice-president Ricardo de la Espriella, on channel 5 in Panamá Province and Medios Panameños, of ex-chancellor Nicolás González Revilla, gained channel 13 in the metropolitan area of the capital, creating Telemetro. Telemetro started on October 13, 1981 as a subscription television channel with a six-hour schedule of three movies, mostly vintage. A relay station in Colón was installed in 1983, before achieving total national coverage in 1992. Panavisión, on its hand, started broadcasting on October 21, 1983. Within a year, Panavisión had already set up relay stations to cover all nine provinces. Although Panavisión was an impartial network, the station was later taken by the military forces which ultimately led to De la Espriella losing its television license, upon losing support from Noriega. The exit of Nicolás Ardito Barletta from its management caused Arturo del Valle to buy the station. Eventually Del Valle left the control of the station causing Panavisión to file for bankruptcy and shut down before the end of the dictatorship. The Chiari family sold TVN to colonels and people with connections to the National Guard, however it has been theorized that the station was expropriated by orders of Noriega and the Defense Forces. The Chiaris moved to the agricultural industry, while one of their descendants, Rodolfo Chiari de León, continued working at the station as general manager. In 1989, RPC and Telemetro were sanctioned by Minister of Government and Justice, Rodolfo Chiari de León, for its lack of support of its services for the State. TVN was faithful to the military regime and wasn't penalized. Tensions between the networks and the regime skyrocketed, to an extent where, ahead of the American invasion, all Panamanian media outlets closed. SCN TV continued operations.
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