Sogecable,
S.A., former Sociedad de Televisión Canal Plus, S.A.,
was created on April 12th, 1989. On August 25th 1989 it was
awarded by the Goverment in a public tender, one of the three
new private channels. On June 8th 1990, CANAL+ began its
test broadcasts and on September 14th it began broadcasting
its regular programming.
On
March 1st, 1993, Sociedad de Gestión de Cable, S.A.
(whose main activitie until that date was the renting of
the CANAL+ decoders to the CANAL+ subscribers) began broadcasting
a DTH satellite platform called CANALSATÉLITE with
two thematic channels: Cinemanía (movies) and Documanía
(documentaries). Later that same year, on December 31st,
Cineclassics (black and white movies) and Minimax (children´s
programs) were added to the offer.
On
January 25th, 1995 CANAL+ broke the one million suscribers´s
barrier and on January 2nd 1996 Sociedad de Televisión
Canal Plus, S.A. bought Sociedad de Gestión de Cable,
S.A. changing its name to Sogecable S.A. on June 1st 1996.
On April 1st 1996 CANALSATÉLITE launched Sportmania
(sports).
On
January 31st, 1997 CANALSATÉLITE DIGITAL (CSD), a
DTH digital satellite service, began its broadcasts and on
September 15th Vía Digital, a DTH digital satellite
service, began broadcasting. In July 1999, Sogecable was
floated on the Madrid Stock Exchange and on October 26th
2000, CSD broke the one million suscribers´s barrier.
On
April 3rd 2002, CANAL+ (along with TVE, Antena 3 and Telecinco)
began broadcasting on digital terrestrial and on April 17th
it moved its headquarters to Tres Cantos (Madrid). On May
8th, Sogecable and Telefónica, the largest shareholders
of CSD and Vía Digital, signed an agreement to merge
Vía Digital in Sogecable. On July 3rd 2003, Vía
Digital was absorbed by Sogecable and on July 21st DIGITAL+,
the new digital satellite service formed from the merger
of CSD and Vía Digital, began broadcasting.
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