TVE Internacional turns 25

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It is broadcast in over 200 countries and watched in 100 million homes

TVE Internacional, the channel that broadcasts the content of TVE around the world, is celebrating its 25th birthday:

On 1 December 1989, programmes of the international channel were introduced as a trial, and a year later, on 1 December 1990, they were established permanently.

The firm commitment of RTVE, supported by major technological development during these years, has made TVE the leading general channel that broadcasts worldwide in Spanish, reaching over 200 countries, 100 million homes, and a potential audience of 450 million viewers in the five continents.

A variety of quality programmes

With diverse, balanced, and high-quality programming, it provides a wide variety for all its viewers (Spanish nationals who live in Spain or abroad, Spanish speakers, and foreigners interested in Spain), and it enhances Spain’s presence in the world by showing the current situation in the country, as well as its historical, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

The channel includes the best TVE programmes with the rights to be shown internationally that are broadcast nationally, and specific offerings that reinforce the basic objectives of the channel. This general channel has a variety of quality educational, culture, current affairs, entertainment, and drama programmes.

Current events in Spain are brought to the audience through news programmes, such as “Telediario”, “Informe Semanal”, “Los Desayunos de TVE” and “La noche en 24”.

The entertainment section is varied and includes Latin American drama, game shows, comedy programmes and magazines.

Quality series, such as “Cuéntame cómo pasó”, “Isabel”, “Águila Roja” and “Amar en Tiempos Revueltos” or “Acacias 38”, amongst others, along with TV movies and self-produced miniseries, are one of the most widely accepted cornerstones of our programming.

Lastly, culture and education have their place at TVE Internacional with educational science, technology, literature, cinematography and art programmes, such as “Aquí la Tierra” and “Fabricando Made in Spain”. These are innovative formats that show that science and arts can also be addressed in an entertaining way.

TVE has become an international reference in general television in Spanish due to the support of the viewers, the true focus of this celebration.

25 years, continually evolving

TVE started to look abroad: distribution to the Americas, Equatorial Guinea, and the Philippines via satellite of the programme “300 million” in 1979 and the broadcasting of TVE 1 to Europe and Canal América in 1988.

At its outset, the programming of TVE Internacional for Europe and the Americas was the same, including channel 1 and channel 2 programmes, beginning at eight in the morning and finishing at around two in the morning. On 15 April 1991, the programming became independent in order to adapt to the time and culture differences of the different continents. Broadcasting progressively increased until it covered the whole day.

RTVE continued to expand its international coverage and improve the quality of the signal, until it achieved worldwide coverage.

Four different signals

TVE Internacional currently broadcasts through four different signals, in order to better adapt the programming to the mean reference times in its respective areas.

América I broadcasts to South America and the east coast of North and Central America.

América II, broadcasts to the west coast of North and Central America; TVE Internacional Europa, the channel with the greatest coverage, is the signal for Europe, Africa, and part of western Asia, and TVE Internacional Asia broadcasts to (Central and Eastern) Asia and Oceania.

Viewers rate it as very good

More than 76% of viewers who watch TVE outside of Spain say that they are satisfied with the RTVE’s international channel and give the contents of the public network an average rating of 7.7 points.

These are the conclusions of a survey conducted by RTVE to find out the opinions of TVE Internacional, RTVE.es and Radio Exterior viewers, both Spanish expats and non-Spanish nationals living abroad. More than 5,000 individuals participated in the study, which was conducted between November 2013 and last March.

Composition of our programming.

Entertainment (41%) heads the TVE content.

It is closely followed by current affairs and investigation programmes (36%). Educational programmes (12%) come in third place.

Drama (5%) and children’s programmes (2%) make up the rest of the TVE schedule.