Sistema Público de Radiodifusión Cochrane

Logo since 2017

**Sistema Público de Radiodifusión Cochrane**, branded as **SPRC**, is an attached state agency of the Agencia Comunicaciones y Información de Cochrane established in 1989. It has the duty of managing **SPRC Canal 2**, a general entertainment, cultural and educational television station in Punta del Oro, nationally serving the entirety of Cochrane.

The SPRC also administers airtime/space between the SPRC Canal 2's two program distributors, the fellow ACIC-attached state agency Organización de Producciones Nacionales (OPN) and Radiodifusora Punta del Oro's television production arm, RDP Producciones.

Receiving news, sports and limited advertising provided by the organization, it is also a non-voting member station of Medios Nacionales de Cochrane, a two of it's kind alongside Radio Cochrane Internacional.

## History

The channel 2 frequency in Punta del Oro was initially owned by the Universidad Nacional de Cochrane as an educational broadcaster, gaining a license in March 3, 1952. Signing-on in October 25, 1953 as **UNC Televisión**, it was the second-oldest TV station in Cochrane, following RMR Canal 4 (now SCT Canal 9) which signed on two days prior. It was also the first public broadcaster in Cochrane a few years before Televisión Nacional de Cochrane.

In 1961, PZRH-AM owner Radiodifusora Punta del Oro, began to lease evening time slots from the educational broadcaster, which was previously used as UNC Televisión's replay hours. Under the umbrella brand of **RDP Televisión**, it broadcasted commercial general programming produced and/or distributed by RDP, notably NBC programming, owing to PZRH-AM's long-time affiliation with NBC Radio's Red Network.

During the onset of Juan Ignacio Giraldi's self-coup that led to the rise of a decades-long Military Dictatorship in Cochrane in 1972, many TV stations across the country temporarily went off-air, with certain broadcasters resuming broadcasts months later, but UNC TV and RDP Televisión Canal 2 never came back. Instead, the Cochranean Armed Forces took over the channel 2 frequency, converting it into a state-controlled outlet as **Ejército de Cochrane Canal 2**, dedicated on programming that presented the Giraldi-controlled army in good light, while denying their countless committed human rights violations during the entirety of the military dictatorship.

During the uprising of the EDSA 1986 coup, Ejército de Cochrane Canal 2 was then captured by the Corazon Martinez-led rebels and took the army's propaganda machine off-air, putting the TV station dark again since their first in 1972. Immediately after the redemocratization of the country, the channel 2 frequency was seen as the base to a proposal of several academic institutions and the Ministry of Education for the plans of reestablishing an educational channel, albeit in a nationalized scale.

At the same time, Radiodifusora Punta del Oro had sought to return to the television industry after decades of dictatorial oppression, seeking to operate channel 2 once again as a general entertainment channel after the toppling of the military dictatorship. RDP, alongside TVA (now TV7) were one of the two remaining pre-Military Dictatorship TV operators who did not return at the height of the sequestrations that were done months after the EDSA 1986 coup.

With two opposing hopeful bidders heating up on operating channel 2, both were eventually summoned by Legislation under the coordination of the telco-media regulator, the CRTC in a meeting regarding the creation of a state agency with the members of legislation to vote on the decision. The results show that the majority vote approved the creation, wishing that it would bring back the previous entertainment and educational format of the pre-Military Dictatorship channel 2.

With legislatorial and regulatory approval, the state agency, determined to be named **Sistema Público de Radiodifusión Cochrane** (**SPRC**), was established by law in 1989, with Organización de Producciones Nacionales (OPN) and Radiodifusora Punta del Oro (RDP) as the TV station's two program distributors. It would be in 1991 where channel 2 was finally put on-air, the third time since 1953 and 1972, this time as **SPRC Canal 2**.

## Programming

during OPN-produced programsduring RDP-produced programs
The TV station airs a variety of non-commercial educational and cultural programs along with commercial entertainment programs.

From 1961 and again in 1991, channel 2 has been airing commercial general programming, under the brand name of **RDP Televisión** in the evenings from RDP Producciones, while maintaining its non-commercial cultural and educational mandate in the daytime broadcast schedule.

Specifically regarding its educational programming, under the brand name of **Cultura y Educación**, the OPN is in charge with producing, promoting, and delivering television-based multimedia learning opportunities to learners of all ages, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, educational institutions, and educators. The cultural programs, are as well connected to and promote formal courses of study offered by the province's universities and colleges or the formal learning objectives of the Ministry of Education.