In May 2007, after more than 50 years on the air, Radio Caracas Televisión, RCTV, stopped broadcasting. The government of Hugo Chávez did not renew the concession and occupied the frequencies with a new state channel, TVes.
But RCTV didn't end by losing its frequencies. The channel looked for the cable and today reaches thousands of Venezuelan homes and the exterior through various subscription systems. Why isn't RCTV over? Because a TV operation is a lot more than a transmission network. RCTV is a factory of television. No frequency, no transmitters, the channel produces content news, telenovelas, contests and varieties that have enriched cable and satellite systems. In addition has a major novel production business for the outside.
TV and Video visited RCTV and spoke with Edgardo Mosca, Vice President of Channel Engineering, who told us how it was the transition from being an on-air television station, to a channel in the cable. A rather unique transition.
TV and Video: This must be the only case in the world in which an air channel, with large audience ratings, is go to the cable. Besides that nobody does it for pleasure....
Edgardo Mosca: Sure, you are born as a cable channel, because you chose to be a cable channel and not because they restrict the way you reach your viewers of the the way you are used to. One of the first things that most it costs as an engineer, and it cost programmers which we give them service, is that before our responsibility it was how RCTV got to the houses. The user called us and he told us that he had problems receiving RCTV, and we we saw what areas it was in, how the radiation pattern was in the area and what coverage it was supposed to have. The we called and visited it and if it had a reception problem we could see it along with him. We transported our signal to each of the cities and then we distributed it to the house of each of our clients.
TVyV: National coverage?
EM: National coverage. Total. There was no city of Venezuela where there was competition and was not RCTV. But there were cities where RCTV was broadcast and not none of the competitors. Now, it's a concern. that there are in many cities that are behind the curtain of iron. For example, in the Turi Valleys, which is a city Caracas bedroom, RCVT was for years exclusive, there was no yet another channel.
After RCTV came a state channel and then another status channel. Today RCTV does not arrive, so three arrive canals just to the Turi Valleys. If you don't have a cable, you don't have a cable. The only thing you hear is the status message.
TVyV: What cost you the most?
EM: Adapt to deliver the signal to another. That signal that was our responsibility of how it got to houses, it is no longer, is the responsibility of another. And they have never there are covenants that tell us that we have to establish certain parameters in how to transport the signal and distribute it to each of the subscribers. A cable operator of these little ones, for example, you have a problem in a small town and they call us to we immediately and we go and tell you that you have to make the claim to your cable operator and, in turn, we call to the cable operator and we say.
TVyV: But before, when you had the signal to air, you also had the cable, you delivered the signal to the cable
EM: We also had it on the cable. We had always delivered or suggested to him the cable operators, large and small, that will take our signal satellite. Maybe what I'm going to say sounds like a boast, but it's not. When we get off the air, we discover that they weren't really grabbing us satellite. More than 70% of the cable operators in this country had the signal of the air. They had never used the satellite. The quality of our signal on the air was so good, that's why I tell you that it can sound a boasting, that they didn't need to take it out of satellite. When you have a very good antenna and a good demodulator, you have a signal excellent.
That was our barrier to entry to cable. How we told him to the cable operator: well right now grab us for xyz because it is that I don't have the set-top box. For example, the decoder that we had to receive satellite in Maracaibo, it has it TVes and does not use it, but it is within the precautionary measure that dictated the TCJ. So, we had no way to get to the cablers. Then when the National Government takes away our concession, equipment, and all frequencies, we no longer had how to exit for point-to-point radio, nor for repeaters, nor for microwaves, neither for f ly away, nor for broadcasting, i.e. a total encirclement. So we had to see how we established fiber optic networks and how we were looking for satellite providers to get out. And it wasn't easy.
TVyV: That's why they have so developed the FTP system, because they took away their fly aways.
EM: They took away our frequency in order to use the f ly aways, they took away the microwaves, that is, we can not bring the microwave from the different points of the country. Before we had a microwave that came from Maracaibo up to here and today we are using FTP.
We are working with other technologies to cover live news. We already manage to be in certain places and in certain areas of Caracas to have transmissions in live via FTP.
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