Television in Bolivia

Provisions were made for the government to provide a one-year monopoly to the first TV station in Bolivia, scheduled to start before the end of 1966.

[1] Given the rumors of the closure of Congress and the desire of the government of that time to have power over the country to become a dictator,[2] President René Barrientos Ortuño signs the Supreme Decree 08395, on June 19, 1968, with which he founded the Bolivian Radio and Television Company (RTB), and later, with Supreme Decree 8571 (November 20, 1968) decides to change the name to Empresa Nacional de Televisión Boliviana (or by its acronym, ENTBOL).

At that time, a contract was signed with the Spanish company, INELEC, in order to advise and contribute to the installation of the State Television Channel.

[5][6] The monopoly was broken in 1973, when a television station was granted to the Higher University of San Andrés - Sistema Integrado de Televisión Universitaria.

[12] In 1986, the government had received seven bids for private television stations in La Paz, of which only five could be legalized as both the state and the university already had their channels.

[9] In 2009, the government announced a phased roll-out of digital terrestrial television starting in 2012, with a prospective shutdown date of the analog signals scheduled for 2019.

[9] On April 8, 2018, ATT granted requests for sixteen television stations to begin digital terrestrial broadcasts in the trunk axis, with a deadline set for June 30.

The channels Unitel, ATB, Red Uno, Bolivisión and (to a lesser extent) Bolivia TV; usually broadcast local newscasts, at least in the cities that make up the main axis (La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz).

Channels with a presence in two or more departments but that, due to their technical or economic limitations, do not cover the nine departmental capitals of the national territory or do not have 90% coverage, excluding cable, satellite or internet television.