The 1980s
RCN produced television series with high remembrance among viewers like Cusumbo and El Taita in 1984, which was the first Colombian telenovela filmed in exterior locations. In August 1988, RCN became part of OTI Colombia, gaining the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. Other members included Caracol, RTI, Producciones PUNCH, Producciones JES and Datos y Mensajes.[4]
The 1990s
Along with Caracol Televisión and RTI Producciones, RCN became one of the major television production companies in Colombia, producing not only telenovelas and game shows, but also sports events and news. Nevertheless, the telenovelas gave to RCN an outstanding recognition, first in Latin America and in places as distant as Vietnam and Hungary. Among this productions were La Potra Zaina, Las Juanas and the international hit Café, con aroma de mujer, which not only have been broadcast in several countries across the globe but have been remade several times, with Destilando Amor being the newest version. Within the telenovelas they produced in the 1990s, there were productions like La Otra Raya del Tigre, La Vorágine, La Casa de las dos Palmas, Azucar, Momposina and Hombres, all of them raising parts of the Colombian culture and showing it to the world.
Terrestrial TV Channel
1990s
On July 10, 1998, RCN went on the air as an independent signal with disastrous results compared to Caracol Televisión, a situation that stabilized when Carlos Ardila Lülle took over the direction of the channel.
Its first broadcast of the channel began at 9:00 pm with the first broadcast of Noticias RCN.
The first telenovela that the channel RCN Televisión premiered was La madre in 1998, starring Margarita Rosa de Francisco and Héctor de Malba and directed by Pepe Sánchez.
2000s
In 2000, it began broadcasting its programming 24 hours a day.
In 2002, it premiered its first reality show, which was Protagonistas de novela, hosted by María Cecilia Botero and recorded from Miami, United States.
Upon reaching ten years of its operation as a private channel, Canal RCN's signal reached 97% of the Colombian geography with the launch of 13 stations covering 24 municipalities in Santander,
1990s
On July 10, 1998, RCN went on the air as an independent signal with disastrous results compared to Caracol Televisión, a situation that stabilized when Carlos Ardila Lülle took over the direction of the channel.
Its first broadcast of the channel began at 9:00 pm with the first broadcast of Noticias RCN.
The first telenovela that the channel RCN Televisión premiered was La madre in 1998, starring Margarita Rosa de Francisco and Héctor de Malba and directed by Pepe Sánchez.
2000s
In 2000, it began broadcasting its programming 24 hours a day.
In 2002, it premiered its first reality show, which was Protagonistas de novela, hosted by María Cecilia Botero and recorded from Miami, United States.
Upon reaching ten years of its operation as a private channel, Canal RCN's signal reached 97% of the Colombian geography with the launch of 13 stations covering 24 municipalities in Santander, Antioquia, Guaviare, Risaralda, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander, Boyacá and the State Táchira in Venezuela.
On November 3, 2008, its sister channel called NTN24 went on the air, a channel that broadcasts news 24 hours a day, with spaces for opinion, analysis, economics, sports, entertainment and specialized topics.
As of August 5, 2009, the creation of RCN Novelas, RCN's soap opera channel through the subscription television network, was announced. This is the direct competitor of Novelas Caracol of the company Caracol Televisión.
2010s
As of January 2011 and with the arrival of DTT, RCN Televisión began broadcasting in HD.
In 2012 they began to broadcast his first telenovela in HD as it was "Pobres Rico" with the protagonists Juan Pablo Raba and Maria Helena Doering.
On April 30, 2014, RCN Televisión decided to suspend its HD signal transmitted by the main pay television operators in Colombia.[5]
On July 16, 2015, 21st Century Fox announced that it had sold its stake in MundoFox to RCN Televisión, giving full ownership. The president of MundoFox, Herman López stated that the company was proud to have started MundoFox with RCN Televisión and is confident that they will realize the signal's full potential.
On July 28, 2015, MundoFox began to progressively introduce a new identity as MundoMax. The rebrand was officially completed on August 13 of that same year, coinciding with the third anniversary of the launch of the signal. In addition, RCN Televisión announced that it had canceled the network's news broadcasts.
On July 31, 2015, the president of RCN Televisión, Ibra Morales, stated regarding the decision that "although we have canceled Noticias MundoFox, RCN Televisión continues its dedication to bringing quality news coverage to the Hispanic community in the United States, in a vibrant and dynamic way. " RCN Televisión hopes to make MundoMax the most important Hispanic network in the United States in a short time.
Private television network
In 1995, the Colombian government opened up a bidding for two private television networks, each one operating with one channel. RCN took part of this bidding, getting one of the two licenses, the other went to Caracol Televisión. In 1997, RCN started construction on the infrastructure to launch the television channel. On 10 July 1998, RCN aired for the first time as a private channel. In this first stage, RCN launched two telenovelas -La Madre and Carolina Barrantes- and improved the news bulletins, nevertheless, in the first year, RCN -and Caracol- only had a fraction of the Colombian television audience, because the broadcasting infrastructure was not complete and the production companies which remained in the official channels launched a solid strategy to keep the viewers.
In only the second semester of 1999 and the first one of 2000, RCN and Caracol got to beat the public channels, taking more of the 90 percent of the viewers. RCN's first hits were Francisco El Matemático ("Francisco, the Math Teacher"), a teen-oriented series, which aired on Saturday nights, but thanks to its success was moved to prime time Mondays to Fridays, and El Fiscal (The Prosecutor), an action oriented series.
Since the successes of Francisco El Matemático and El Fiscal, RCN launched successful telenovelas which let it take the first place in the Colombian most watched networks: Me Llaman Lolita ("My Name is Lolita"), and Yo soy Betty, la Fea, that became the most successful telenovela ever in Colombia, topping Café con aroma de mujer. Betty la fea has since had its format and storyline licensed by RCN to multiple broadcasters worldwide in several languages.
Following the international trend, RCN launched in 2003 its first reality show: Protagonistas de Novela, which became the most watched show that year in Colombia, its second season, despite not getting as high ratings as the first season got, kept it in first place in the most watched shows in Colombia.
