Canal 13 (Armandina)

Canal 13 is a commercial television channel owned by Telecorporación Armandina. Canal 13 was formed from the merger of several independent television stations that started in various cities of the country as early as 1979, with the network starting de facto with Canal 13 Sanhuezo on December 29, 1978.

TELIN went bankrupt in 1985 and merged with Canal 6 to create Telecorporación Armandina. Today, Canal 13 is the most-viewed channel in the country.

History

Televisoras del Interior (TELIN) was established by Sarcos Ortega in 1976 to set up television stations in loopholes where a commercial station was allowed, following the shutdown of Canal 11 UNACA in 1965 (shortly before the signing on of INT on channel 2 in Sanhuezo) and aimed to unbalance the state monopoly. The first stations, Canal 7 General Romagnoli and Canal 13 Santa Fe, signed on in 1977. General Romagnoli was selected because of his family heritage.

The Sanhuezo station signed on for the first time at 5:30pm on March 13, 1979. Before they got the license ready, TELIN started buying content from foreign production companies, but was unable to screen much of the content until months to weeks ahead of the launch.

Ortega abided with Romagnoli's dictatorship, but didn't achieve break-even at the long-term. The channel relied mostly on low-budget and Golden Age movies from the United States and even Huasco, and was unable to compete against the parastatal INT, which at the time was the most popular television network.

In 1985, a scandal erupted at the channel's administration and TELIN was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. As consequence the administration decided to do a quick-fire sale to the owners of Canal 6, whose broadcasts had recently started. Then it was agreed that channels 6 and 13, including the regional affiliates of both networks, would be operated under a common administration, under Telecorporación Armandina. The cration of the new company forced them to position Canal 13 as the main channel, despite the fact that the two channels were targeting identical, heterogeneous profiles.

The forced sale and creation of TCA gave Canal 13 a boost in its budget, allowing the channel to bring popular international formats to the Armandine market. By 1990, they started signing a volume deal with Globo and later Televisa, these deals used to belong to the public sector (ATC and INT). Canal 13's success mostly led to INT's downfall, culminating in its privatization in 1993.

The channel bought the terrestrial rights to two hit animation series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, in 1991, the former caused a merchandise rush and the latter was screened during prime time.

The channel broadcast the Castillan game show El gran juego de la oca in 1994, achieving high ratings. Its cancellation led in 1995 to the creation of El Juego de la Suerte, a game show that lasted until 2005, that tried hard not to be its Castillan counterpart.

Network

O&Os

Almost every Canal 13 affiliate is an O&O owned by Telecorporación Armandina.

• Canal 13 Sanhuezo
• Canal 12 La Plata
• Canal 13 Santa Fe
• Canal 7 General Romagnoli
• Canal 13 Arrecife
• Canal 10 Falcón
• Canal 8 Fajardo

O&O relayers

• Canal 13 Interlagos (Canal 3 Interlagos is independent and relays some programming from Canal 11)
• Canal 8 Vallarta (since October 3, 2022, was an independent affiliate until then)
• Canal 4 San Telmo
• TV Alborada del Sur (Floriano, now a mere relay of Canal 4 San Telmo)
• TV Puerto (Puerto Nacional)
• Canal 9 Puerto Juárez
• Canal 4 Porvenir

Affiliates

• Teleazúcar

National service

The national service is available on DIRECTV, Movistar and Tigo's satellite services nationwide, on cable outside of Sanhuezo and terrestrially in some cities. The main difference is the absence of local programming, being replaced by reruns of TCA series, this is also reflected in advertising slots. Also, the channel must provide temperature for Sanhuezo (SAN), La Plata (LAP) and Santa Fe (SFE), toggling between each city every twenty seconds.

Programming

News

• Teletrece:
  • Teletrece Matinal
  • Teletrece Mediodía
  • Teletrece Central
  • Teletrece Medianoche

Former

• [USS] Sábado Gigante: starting in 1985, Canal 13 took over the nationwide rights from INT, and carried the program until its conclusion.

Directive

Director of Programming

• 1990-1994: Sarcos Ortega