With the support of American engineers, RPC Televisión started broadcasting on March 14, 1960, owned by Radio Programas Continentales.
The station had technical support from ABC International Television Inc.[4] with a heavy emphasis on musical shows and American imports.
[7] Competition between RPC and TVN was made in several ways: who had the better imports, expansion of the coverage area and updated recording and transmission technologies.
[9] That same year, the two Panamanian networks broadcast a sum of 180 hours and 45 minutes per week, with 71.6% consisting of imports and the remaining 28.4% produced in Panama.
The passing of Law 36 in the Official Gazette in 1980 gave licenses to Panavisión del Istmo, of Vice-president Ricardo de la Espriella, on channel 5 in Panamá Province and Medios Panameños, of ex-chancellor Nicolás González Revilla, gained channel 13 in the metropolitan area of the capital, creating Telemetro.
[17] Eventually Del Valle left the control of the station causing Panavisión to file for bankruptcy and shut down before the end of the dictatorship.
The Chiari family sold TVN to colonels and people with connections to the National Guard,[18] however it has been theorized that the station was expropriated by orders of Noriega and the Defense Forces.
In 1989, RPC and Telemetro were sanctioned by Minister of Government and Justice, Rodolfo Chiari de León, for its lack of support of its services for the State.
Tensions between the networks and the regime skyrocketed, to an extent where, ahead of the American invasion, all Panamanian media outlets closed.
In 1995, talks to merge the media interests of the Eleta and González Revilla families emerged, with the merger coming to fruition on July 15, 1997, creating Corporación MEDCOM.
The merger was to cut operation costs, increase investment flow in the television and telecommunications industries and compete with the launch of DirecTV in the country (now under Sky México).
[31] In 1999, in anticipation for the return of the control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government, SCN shut down its radio and TV operations.
[33] Radio Cadena Millennium (RCM), owned by Julio Miller, begins its plan to bid for a license on the UHF band in 1998.
Aimed primarily at children and teenagers, MEDCOM's goal was to maximize its audience and offer a more complete scheme while reaching a segment of the population with purchasing influence.