Globovision

Globovisión is a Venezuelan open television channel that transmits news 24 hours a day, owned by Raúl Gorrín. It is based in Caracas, in addition to Noticias Globovisión, the The channel's newscast, Globovisión has political, sports, cultural, entertainment and interview programs.

History

Background

The history of Globovisión begins in 1991, when the State was granting concessions for channels in the UHF band, since the VHF was saturated, and that is when Guillermo Zuloaga, Alberto Federico Ravell and Luis Teófilo Núñez proceeded to request a license. Initially, the project for the channel would be called UNITEL.

Subsequently, the project changed its name to Globovisión due to a request made by Nelson Mezerhane, who became a new partner in the project. In October 1994, Alberto Federico Ravell proposed the idea of having a news channel within manageable costs, since it was only a matter of receiving the signal through a satellite dish. When there was only one month left before the broadcast, Zuloaga and Ravell committed to transmitting the signal exclusively to Venezuela.

Development (1994-2013)

Globovisión aired on December 1, 1994. The shareholders were Luis Teófilo Núñez Arismendi, Guillermo Zuloaga Núñez, Nelson Mezerhane and Alberto Federico Ravell.

In February 1995 it joined the broadcasts of the CNN en Español channel, and just two months later, greater variety was implemented in the programming through the contracting and transmission of AVN (Venezuelan News Agency) spaces. On July 1, 1996, the channel began broadcasting its own newscast with 3 daily broadcasts, which today constitute the basis of programming.

Between 1995 and 1999 they broadcast CBS Telenoticias every half hour.

On October 31, 1997, Globovisión inaugurated the open signal in Valencia through channel 21 and added its own correspondents in Maracaibo (in association with TELECOLOR), Valencia and San Cristóbal. In 1998 he joined TV Guayana (from Bolívar state), TV Llano (from Guárico state) and RCN from Colombia. In 2000, strategic alliances were carried out with TVS of Maracay, Promar Televisión of Barquisimeto and TAM of Táchira, which began to retransmit part of the programming and had an open signal in the city of San Cristóbal (channel 21)..

With just 5 years of existence, Globovisión went from being a television channel dependent on external programming, to having 90% of programming made in-house. Among its innovations, on July 19, 1999, the globovision.com page appeared. On November 26 of the same year, it became the first UHF channel to be transmitted by DirecTV satellite signal, through channel 238.

On April 23, 2007, Luis Teófilo Núñez died in Miami, Florida, while still a member of the channel's board of directors.

On February 17, 2010, Ravell, general director of the channel, was fired from his position by the Globovisión board of directors due to "differences with his partners." Ravell said that he had to "sacrifice himself by leaving his position so that the channel was not sold and fell into the hands of the government of Hugo Chávez.”^{[citation required]}

On June 14, 2010, the Federal Bank, owned by Nelson Mezerhane, was intervened and subsequently liquidated; since according to the Superintendency of Banks, it enjoyed little liquidity. 20% of the shares of Globovisión, belonging to the Federal Bank, passed into the hands of the Venezuelan government.

On July 21, 2010, in a televised program, Hugo Chávez announced that he owns 45.5% of Globovisión's radio concessions. Mezerhane was the owner and through which he controlled 20% of Globovisión plus 5.8% of another company that left the country and the businessman Luis Teófilo Núñez died. He owned 20% of the shares but the radio concessions are not hereditary. (although it added up poorly) express that the state was approaching a majority.

In October 2011, the president of Conatel, Pedro Maldonado Marín, imposed a fine of about 2.1 million dollars on the Globovisión television channel for its treatment of the June prison crisis. The sanction amounts to 7, 5% of gross income during 2010, and responds to the entity's interpretation that the channel was an apology for crime.

New stage (2013-present)

On March 11, 2013, Carlos Zuloaga, vice president of the channel and son of Guillermo Zuloaga, announced that negotiations were being held with businessman Juan Domingo Cordero for the sale of 80% of the channel's shareholding. Subsequently, Guillermo Zuloaga addressed a letter to the channel's employees in which he confirmed the intention to sell and explained that the channel was economically, politically and legally unviable.

On May 14, 2013, the sale of Globovisión to businessmen Raúl Gorrín, Juan Domingo Cordero and Gustavo Perdomo became effective. After the sale the channel undergoes changes in programming due to the resignations and dismissals of several journalists and anchors of the channel, but at the same time, the entry of new personalities and programs of their own and independent production begins. In December 2013, they debuted a more modern set design on the newscast.^{[citation required]}

On August 16, 2013, businessman and shareholder Juan Domingo Cordero irrevocably abandoned the position of president of Globovisión, after discovering that it was approved without his "knowledge and approval" the suspension of the program "Aló Ciudadano", which Leopoldo Castillo hosted.

On October 9, 2014, the channel joins for the first time in the broadcasts of certain games of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP), this being the fourth channel in the broadcast of the seasons, a few days also the TVes channel joins. This same year the new owners of Globovisión (Gustavo Perdomo and Raúl Gorrín) would be declared "personas non gratas" in the city of Miami.

In 2015, the channel would plan to broadcast in HDTV (high definition) format, to date it can only be seen in 1080i format through its signal on YouTube. On December 15, 2016, the channel adjusts its image format to widescreen in its original programs, broadcasting them according to the original format that has been used (4:3 or 16:9).

On June 1, 2022, its graphic package was renewed, but it left the same logo and multiplatform aspect and the same in December with its website.

Reception

Globovisión broadcasts in Caracas on frequency 33 UHF, in Valencia and Maracay on frequency 21 UHF. In the rest of Venezuela, Globovisión is seen through the subscription television companies Inter, Supercable, NetUno, Movistar TV, among others.

Controversies

Reviews

Globovisión was accused by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez of supporting the coup d'état in Venezuela in 2002, of distorting the truth and promoting a "destabilizing" agenda.

After the closure of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) in 2007, Globovisión was the only channel not attended by spokespersons for the Venezuelan government. Also the only one that used to broadcast live the press conferences and public events of the coalition of opposition parties Democratic Unity Table.

On May 28, 2007, the Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information, Willian Lara, presented a document to the Attorney General's Office of Venezuela in which the Aló Ciudadano program was denounced for instigating the assassination of Hugo Chávez, as well as a video of that television program. The video shows images of the attack on John Paul II in 1981, accompanied by the song “Have faith that this does not end here” by Rubén Blades as background music. The images and the song were placed after a cut, at the end of an interview with Marcel Granier, to go to the advertising schedule. The director of Globovisión, Alberto Federico Ravell, commented that the channel had made a mistake in the shot and described Willian Lara's accusation as ridiculous.

Since President Hugo Chávez assumed the presidency in 1999, until 2013, when the change of directors occurred, the channel was accused throughout this stage of providing false information and distorting it. Likewise, it was accused by Venezuelan government officials of being an "imperialist" and that it is only dedicated to reporting on the opposition. These caused the risk that the channel would be sanctioned numerous times, leading it almost to possible bankruptcy, and that the concession would not be renewed, where to date it has not been granted since said concession has expired since 2015.

Editorial line changes

In 2013, after the sale of the channel by Gustavo Perdomo, Juan Domingo Cordero and Raúl Gorrín; the new board announced a 'center' editorial line. Since then, Globovisión has been accused by the Venezuelan opposition of "self-censoring".^{[citation required]}

Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski said on May 24, 2013 that the new Globovisión board had ordered that his speeches would no longer be broadcast live. This after one of his speeches on the Buenas Noches program was censored and skipped several parts of his speeches in the news reports, this being the beginning and cause of the resignation of journalists and presenters such as Kiko Bautista, Carla Angola, Roland Carreño and Pedro Luis Flores.^{[citation required ]} Also the resignation of Leopoldo Castillo from Globovisión from his program Aló Ciudadano, led to the resignation in solidarity of Gladys Rodríguez, Román Lozinski, Nitu Pérez Osuna and several correspondents in the interior of Venezuela, such as consequence of the change in the channel's editorial line. A few days later, the president of the New Globovisión Board of Directors, Juan Domingo Cordero, would also leave.

On April 2, 2014, the journalist and Globovisión evening anchor, Reimy Chávez, who resigned that night in a live broadcast, clarified via Twitter how he left the television plant. Reimy said that a great Security deployment accompanied him to the exit, but he was not attacked at any time. He asked for respect from the rest of his colleagues who decided to stay on the channel.

US sanctions

On January 8, 2019, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctions Raúl Gorrín, María Perdomo, Gustavo Perdomo and Mayela Tarascio-Pérez, in addition to their companies (including Globovisión and Seguros La Vitalicia). The entity assures that these activities linked to corruption generated more than 2.4 billion dollars in profits. Previously, the Prosecutor's Office of that country had accused Gorrín of being involved in criminal acts. They also added that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing a license that authorizes certain transactions and activities with Globovisión Tele C.A. for a period of one year.