TV Ceará

TV Ceará (also known by the acronym TVC) is a Brazilian educational television station based in Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará, which operates on channel 5 (28 UHF digital) and retransmits TV Cultura and TV Brasil programming. It is administered by the Ceará Teleducation Foundation (FUNTELC), a Ceará government body.

Opened on March 7, 1974 as TV Educativa (TVE), the station, maintained by the Educational Foundation of the State of Ceará (FUNEDUCE), had the purpose of teaching students who attended elementary school in public schools in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza through a teleeducation system in classrooms. FUNTELC began managing the station in 1979, and at the beginning of the following decade a terrestrial system with 150 retransmitters was installed throughout Ceará, expanding the signal range for students from more than two thousand schools in the state. The system also had, until the 1990s, a secondary channel for commercial broadcasters to broadcast their programming to the public in the interior of Ceará.

From 1987 onwards, TVE changed its essentially educational philosophy and began producing cultural and journalistic programs, loosely becoming a public broadcaster, and in 1993 it adopted the name TV Ceará in honor of the station that operated in Fortaleza from 1960 to 1980. Over the years, the educational television system had its structure modified by current governments until it was discontinued in the mid-2000s. Since then, TVC has dedicated itself to producing programs of different genres.

History
The government of the state of Ceará, under the management of Plácido Aderaldo Castelo and through the Secretariat of Education and Culture, obtained in February 1970 the granting of VHF channel 5 in Fortaleza for educational purposes. While the building that would house the future station in the Aldeota neighborhood was under construction, led by engineer Arthur Torres de Mello, a state law was established on October 18, 1973, under the government of César Cals, which created the Educational Foundation of the State of Ceará and in turn Educational Television, administered by the State Teleducation System.

Experimental broadcasts of black and white films began on February 18, 1974 with a message about the tests narrated by actor Ricardo Guilherme and were watched only by students from state public schools. TV Educativa was inaugurated on March 7, 1974 in a ceremony attended by César Cals and the Minister of Education Jarbas Passarinho. In his speech, Cals emphasized the station's goals: "[Television] will certainly put an end to the anxiety that affects all of us here, which is seeing hundreds of young people unable to receive an apprenticeship. worthy due to lack of means". Initially, its signal reached eight cities in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza.

The station's first team was formed by pedagogue Geraldo Campos, who selected educators and artists from the extinct TV Ceará drama department. The group carried out training in other states, such as the visit to TV Educativa do Maranhão, which inspired the Ceará station. The state government's total investments amounted to between eight and nine million cruzeiros. Aimed at students studying the fifth to eighth grades of primary school in public schools, the programming included, in addition to teleclasses, telenovelas with educational content to attract students. The programs were watched in classrooms with the help of advisors.

Under the management of governor Virgílio Távora, the Ceará Teleducation Foundation was created on May 22, 1979, which became responsible for the administration of TVE. At the end of his mandate, in the early 1980s, investment was made in a terrestrial relay system designed by electrical engineer Carlos Ernesto Pontes, who flew over almost all of Ceará in a single engine to choose the highest points in urban and rural areas, where towers with microwave antennas were installed to transmit the broadcaster's signal to 150 repeaters, reaching more than two thousand schools in the 184 municipalities of Ceará. FUNTELC also financed the retransmission of commercial stations to the interior of the state, following a strategy by the Brazilian military government to promote national integration through television.

From 1987, with the beginning of Tasso Jereissati 's government, structural changes were promoted at TVE. Under the direction of professor and pro-rector of the Federal University of Ceará Marcondes Rosa, the broadcaster abandoned the philosophy of not operating during public school holidays and began producing cultural and informal education programs to fill the schedule throughout the year, loosely becoming a public station. In 1988, the broadcaster created the Ceará Animation Center to produce films, documentaries and graphics for television.

TVE began to be used to consolidate the image of the administrations of Tasso and, later, of Ciro Gomes, who took over in 1991 with the support of his predecessor. During his government, the educational television system was universalized with the aim of improving it, increasing the number of students enrolled and leaving the schedule that had been running since the station's inauguration. Educators criticized the measure, claiming that it hindered the planning of supervision in classrooms and that schools implemented teleeducation even without receiving the TVE signal. The station also had its name changed in 1993 to TV Ceará in honor of the station that was shut down in 1980, it received a new logo created by publicist Eduardo Odecio that reinforced the acronym TVC with bright colors and represented cacti and a seed (replacing the old brand, of a single color, which contained an owl symbolizing the figure of the teacher) and was separated from the Department of Education to the Department of Culture and Sports. It was also decided that the second channel of the state terrestrial network would be occupied by a commercial broadcaster that won a public tender, contradicting station managers who used the signal to the interior for free.

The change of secretariat resulted in the creation of new cultural and news programs, with the implementation of an editorial line in TV Ceará's journalism that would deal with matters of public interest and would no longer be " blank slate ". However, the team made up of 120 professionals who worked in this department for two years was disbanded by decision of the Court of Auditors of the State of Ceará, which claimed that there had been no hiring through a public competition. To solve the problem, during Tasso Jereissati's second government, which began in 1995, journalism students were hired as interns. The State Administration Secretariat first authorized the selection of three interns and then, in Tasso's third term, three more, who filled the vacancies of presenter and reporters and planned calls, vignettes and folders publicizing the TVC's programming. The students would later be hired by commercial STATIONS in Fortaleza.

Still during the governor's second term, TV Ceará's pedagogical team was separated from the program production team. Unsuccessful protests against the decision, some of the educators requested retirement or were transferred to the Department of Basic Education, while six teachers remained to put teleclasses on air. In the same period, the end of the bidding contract with the commercial broadcaster allowed FUNTELC to use only one network channel with the second channel's equipment deactivated, and thus the broadcaster had its signal emitted with higher quality by its retransmitters in the state.

At the end of Tasso's third term, around 2002, an investment of five million reais was authorized for the installation of a satellite capture system, improving reception of the TV Ceará signal in schools and preventing outages due to lack of energy in the relays. An additional ten million reais were also used to purchase teaching materials from Fundação Roberto Marinho based on the experience with the Telecurso 2000 distance education program, enabling the implementation of acceleration classes, formed by adults who were unable to study in primary and secondary education and they attended classes at night on the broadcaster’s schedule. At the time, new operational revenues were also made possible with the support of the Secretariat of Culture, guaranteeing TVC the renewal of sound and image and IT equipment, purchase of VHS tapes to back up educational content, renovations at the headquarters and creation of vignettes and scenarios for programs, among other investments, in addition to signing agreements with public universities to train professionals. The broadcaster was also able to join Rede Pública de Televisão to obtain resources with institutional advertising from the Brazilian government.

The government of Lúcio Alcântara, president from 2003 to 2007, unsuccessfully tried to transfer the administration of TV Ceará to a social organization, an idea that became a bill sent by predecessor Tasso Jereissati to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Ceará (ALECE ), based on the transfer of TV Educativa do Rio de Janeiro from a public foundation to a private association at the end of the 1990s. Still under Alcântara's mandate, between 2005 and 2006, TVC discontinued its educational television system, until then, along TVE Maranhão, the only educational stations in Brazil to show TV classes on a regular basis.

At the beginning of 2007, when Cid Gomes took over the state government, TV Ceará found itself with a degrading structure, few employees, lack of transport and only one setting for all programs, in addition to almost all retransmitters in the interior having no signal and the affiliation contract with TV Cultura de São Paulo, which he joined in 1993, was not renewed due to the station's situation. TVC already relayed TVE Brasil, which was in the process of being integrated into a new national public network. While the network was not inaugurated and local programming was being reformulated, the station turned to the already associated SescTV and TV Senado. In December, TV Brasil went on air, and TV Ceará became one of its first affiliates.

Among the changes made under the presidency of journalist Guto Benevides, who took over from filmmaker Glauber Filho, TV Ceará had its command transferred from the Secretariat of Culture to the government's Civil House. In an agreement with ALECE, it began broadcasting its sessions live and hiring its journalists, in addition to producing news programs with the support of TV Assembleia and TV Fortaleza. New programs of different genres were launched and others were reformulated, including the renovation of sets and benches, and the station building was upgraded. Also during Benevides' management, TVC began broadcasting digital signals in Fortaleza. With investments of thirteen million reais, tests on digital UHF channel 28 began on July 20, 2009, and the official launch took place on August 28 with the presence of politicians, including Cid Gomes, businessmen, artists and communicators, making the broadcaster the third in Ceará and the first public television station in Brazil to broadcast in high definition.