Bolivisión

Bolivisión is a commercial Bolivian television station based in Santa Cruz. The channel was launched on June 17, 1997, following the dissolution of Telesistema Boliviano, the creation of Unitel and the beginning of its relations with Galavisión in Santa Cruz. The network is owned by Albavisión since May 2007.

Background
In 1984, Galavisión launched in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on channel 4. Its programming was aimed at a primarily elitist audience with canned foreign programming, primarily centered on entertainment.

On September 28, 1985, América Televisión, a terrestrial television channel owned by Banco Mercantil, was launched on channel 6 in La Paz, the Bolivian capital. With its studios in the Batallón Colorados Building, the station became one of the first private channels in Bolivia. The broadcasts became regular on November 3 the same year. Its owner was Miguel Dueri With broadcasts lasting 6 hours in its first 2 years of broadcast, its transmission schedules progressively increased to 18 hours a day. América Televisión (unrelated to the Peruvian channel of the same name) was the first private network in the country to broadcast via satellite in 1994 and was one of the first to reach the 9 capitals of the department of La Paz. That same year, Ernesto Asbún bought 51% of the shares, with his wife obtaining 47%.

In 1995, Raúl Garáfulic (owner of Red ATB) terminated his contract with TeleOriente and stopped broadcasting on channel 9 in Santa Cruz. After the end of the partnership, Raul Garafulic bought channel 5 from Santa Cruz, which was part of the Asociación Boliviana de Canales (ABC). Consequently, ABC ceased to exist, for which the entire ABC network was subsequently sold to Ernesto Asbún, who had bought Channel 4 of Santa Cruz, Galavisión. Ernesto Asbún bought Galavisión with the intention of forming a network of stations. By doing so, the CDT network ceased its broadcasts on that same channel.

In 1996, a group of businessmen founded Boliviana de Television, with Telesistema Boliviano from La Paz, Antena Uno Canal 6 from Cochabamba and Canal 4 Galavision from Santa Cruz. Bolivisión was struggling due to the dominant position Red Uno and ATB held in the market, while the former ABC went through four changes in ownership. Asbún later associated with Carlos Cardona to form Bolivisión on channel 2 in La Paz. The partnership lasted a year and a half, thus dissolving the CDT Network. In 1997 and with the purchase of Telesistema Boliviano by Unitel, Bolivisión was left without a channel in La Paz.

Beginning of operations
It was on July 17, 1997 that Bolivisión was refounded, and in September of the same year it returned to the air in La Paz through channel 5 VHF. Joining the stations that were already lined to the network were also channel 5 in Oruro, channel 4 in Tarija, channel 2 in Trinidad, channel 5 in Potosí, channel 9 in Sucre and channel 9 in Cobija. The channel acquired the rights to broadcast the matches of the France 98 Qualifiers. Later, on Wednesday, November 26, it expanded by the same frequency in Oruro, broadcasting the Bolivar V.S. Wilstermann boxing match live at 7:00 p.m. Later, the station moved its studios to the fourth floor of the Shopping Norte in La Paz. Bolivisión previously broadcast sporting events such as the NBA that it presented on Sunday afternoons.

New century and first financial crisis
Ernesto Asbún, its owner, was also the owner of Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, which was going through a severe economic crisis. Until a long time, the general manager was exactly the prominent journalist from Cochabamba and director of the Club Deportivo Jorge Wilstermann Mauricio 'El Patato' Mendez Roca, who served as manager of the network until the sale to Albavisión.

New stage with Albavisión
Once LAB went bankrupt and before the judgment that was coming, Asbún sold Bolivisión to the Mexican Remigio Ángel González, owner of the Albavisión media conglomerate, who initially held 10% of the shares. Asbún later tried again on ATB in 2014, when it was under Prisa. The acquisition was finalized in May 2007, after four months of heated negotiations, with the promise of new capital flowing in. González visited the country later in the month, to see the new operations. Asbún subsequently bought a 25% share of ATB in 2014.

Due to the acquisition, starting in 2007, the channel's programming began to consist of Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas from Televisa and TV Globo, respectively. All national production that was not the news was fading.

In 2012 it was the channel in charge of carrying out the international contest América celebra a Chespirito on Televisa. As of 2010, its programming on weekdays is mostly telenovelas produced by Televisa.

The network placed fifth in a ranking published by the IN Magazine in 2011, with 6% of audience share, ahead of the last place, Bolivia TV.

In 2015, the channel repositioned its operations in Santa Cruz, as its news operation was criticized for pandering towards the west of the country since the Albavisión takeover. Work was also underway to convert its facilities to 16:9 HD broadcasts, pending permits from ATT.

Bolvisión became the first commercial television network to downlink its HD signal from the Túpac Katari 1 satellite in October 2018.

Network
The network has twelve licensed stations, of which two are relayers. The stations in the department of Santa Cruz are held by Galavisión and in the rest of the country, by Antena Uno from La Paz.

Presenters

 * Myriam Claros
 * Vania Borja
 * Héctor Uriarte
 * Richard Pereira
 * Pamela Muñoz
 * Nicole Rosell
 * Fernando Eid
 * Carola Castedo
 * Miriam Ramos

Bolivisión Al Día
It is the main news program of Bolivisión. It airs Monday through Friday at 6:00 am, 12:40 pm and 9:00 pm. It is hosted by Carola Castedo from Santa Cruz and Miriam Ramos in La Paz. Its first broadcast was on July 6, 2011, replacing Noticias Bolivisión, previously known as Noticiero Bolivisión.

Dilema
Game show presented by Hans Caceres and Leonel Fransezze, produced by Smilehood Media and Kontenidos Agencia Digital. Format where gaming and entertainment stand out with earning money. The program premiered in 2020 and is an adaptation of an Argentine format produced by Sinapsis for América TV.

La Cancha de Bolivisión
Sports program hosted by Richard Pereira.

Revista Al Día
The channel's morning magazine program.

Infomercials
Paid programs related to the Curanderia.

Former programming
As Galavisión, it produced a variety show for Santa Cruz de la Sierra called Garabato in 1995, before the current network was formed.

Original productions:

As Galavisión:
 * Cuentos navideños II: El nacimiento/El brindis (1990)
 * Cuentos y leyendas del Oriente boliviano (1991)
 * Una vida, un destino (1993)
 * Cuentos navideños III: Papa noel se jubila (1993)
 * La fundación (1994)
 * Más cuentos y leyendas (1994)
 * Una historia, una canción (1995)
 * Luna de locos (1995)
 * Cuentos navideños IV: Una navidad diferente Secuestraron al niño (1995)
 * Tardes antiguas (1996)
 * Cuentos navideños V: Martin, el zapatero/Sucedió en Belén/El juicio a Papa Noel (1996)

As Bolivisión:
 * Casos en la corte (1998)
 * Sueños de cristal (TV movie) (1999)
 * Fuera de control (TV movie) (1999)
 * Destruida para siempre (TV movie) (1999)
 * Esta Boca es mía (2002)

UPP TV
UPP TV is Bolivisión's sister channel, launched on December 11, 2020 and positioned as Bolivia's first digital-only television network. All of the content is original, the channel launched with 16 programs.

Controversies
In 2007, shortly after Albavisión took over the channel, it started including paid text message services in some of its programs.

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Bolivisión dispatched reporters to Qatar. A member of the Qatari Police interrogated a journalist of the network, Roberto Acosta, because of the logo of the channel, which according to the police, resembled the LGBT flag. Acosta defended that Bolivisión's logo was "just a logo". One of the members of the police ended up apologizing Acosta.