Television in Nicaragua

Television in Nicaragua has a history of more than fifty years. Canal 8, the first terrestrial television channel in the country, started broadcasting on July 15, 1956.^[1] Currently there are more than 15 national terrestrial and cable TV channels.

History

The first television channel in Nicaragua opened on VHF channel 8 on July 15, 1956^[2] as Televisión de Nicaragua, S.A., owned by the Novedades newspaper.^[3] The government followed on January 11, 1957 with Canal 6. In 1962, the government merged channels 6 and 8, with the latter becoming a relayer of the former.^[2]

Implementation of digital terrestrial television is relatively slow. In July 2022, TELCOR informed all over-the-air television operators to answer a survey for the implementation of the technology. The sanctioning of two of its employees by US officials is a possible cause for the lack of developments.^[4]

Television channels

Terrestrial television channels

Name of channel	Date of launch	Owner
Canal 2	March 1966	Televicentro de Nicaragua (Albavisión and Maurice Ortega)
Canal 4	October 1992	Informativos de Televisión y Radio, SA (Intrasa)[5]
Canal 6	January 17, 1957 (first incarnation), September 14, 2011 (second incarnation)	Negocios Publicitarios Internacionales, SA (NEPISA)[6]
TN8	July 15, 1956 (first incarnation),[2] 1992 (second incarnation)	Televisora Nicaraguense, SA (Juan Carlos Ortega)
Canal 9	2011	Digital Media de Nicaragua (Grupo RATENSA/Albavisión)
Canal 10	June 23, 1997	Grupo RATENSA (Albavisión)
Canal 11	2010	Grupo RATENSA (Albavisión)
Canal 12	December 11, 1994	Nicavisión
Viva Nicaragua	June 13, 2011	Celeste, S.A.
Vos TV	July 27, 2010	Grupo Pellas
Canal 15	2019[7]	NEPISA
La Rock 22	2020	Televisora Nicaraguense, SA (Juan Carlos Ortega)
CDNN 23
ExtraPlus 37

Cable television channels

• Megabox (Channel 76 Claro TV)
• Atv98 (Channel 98 Claro TV)
• CDNN 23 (Channel 99 Claro TV)

Regional television channels

• Telenorte Channel 48 ClaroTV Estelí)
• Canal 55 El Lider (Channel 55 UHF, Channel 48 Claro TV León and Chinandega, Nicaragua, Channel 110 Telecable León and Chinandega, Nicaragua)
• Canal 16 Ecovisión, Camoapa

Defunct television channels

• ESTV (Canal 11) (rebranded as Vos TV (Canal 14) in 2010)
• Canal 15 (100% Noticias) (Channel 15 UHF, Channel 63 Claro TV)
• Magic Channel
• SSTV (defunct; 1979–1990)
• SNTV (defunct; 1990–1997)
• Canal 21 (closed 2021 due to political opposition)