Grupo Ratensa (Radio y Televisión de Nicaragua, S.A.) is the Nicaraguan subsidiary of Albavisión, a Latin American media company owned by Guatemalan-Mexican-American businessman Remigio Ángel González. The company operates three core television channels - channels 9, 10 and 11, formerly having interests on channel 4 which González had set up with local Sandinist partners. In addition, Ratensa operates a network of radio stations. It claims to be "the most complete media network and the network with the most reach in national television".[1]
Since 2015, Ángel González also controls Televicentro (channel 2) as an independent operation from Ratensa under the supervision of members of the Nicaraguan government. Together, González forms a media duopoly with the family of president Daniel Ortega.[2]
Ángel González started his business career in Nicaragua in the late 1980s when he encountered Octavio Sacasa, de facto owner of Televicentro (from 1979 to 1990, the station was de jure under the control of the state-owned Sistema Sandinista de Televisión) with the aim of selling Mexican productions, mainly from Televisa, to the channel. At first, Ángel did not have much interest in the channel, but since Octavio wanted to sell, talks began which would ultimately lead in the separate buyout of the channel as an independent outlet from Grupo Ratensa in 2011. The two eventually became arch-rivals in 1990, when Sacasa returns to Nicaragua and the channel returns to its rightful owner.[3]
In the early 1990s, González took over the channel 10 frequency, which was initially granted to local businessmen (Carlos Reynaldo and César Augusto Lacayo). At the same time, he assisted in the setup of Canal 4, which had profound links to the FSLN.[4] With the assistance of Dionisio Marenco, he built the channel from scratch in a hostile environment, providing equipment for the channel.[5] Thanks to a crisis experienced by the channel in the late 90s, coupled by a policy shift that saw the removal of local productions, González took over the editorial control of the channel, while creating Canal 10.[6]
Canal 10, which eventually became the main channel of the group, launched on June 23, 1997.[7] The bulk of the output of the two networks was foreign programming; Canal 10 had no newscast until 2001.[8] Initially titled Telediario 10, it was replaced by the current Acción 10 in January 2005.[9]
In 2006, Canal 4 was sold entirely to INTRASA, after accumulating large debts from the González administration.
The group launched Canal 11 (initially TV Red) in July 2010. The channel was created after González bought the VHF allocation, which was initially desired by ESTV, a channel owned by Grupo Pellas that wanted to use the frequency, but was blocked and ultimately conducted its rebrand as Vos TV on UHF channel 14.[6] It was believed that the sale was caused due to the election of Daniel Ortega in 2007 and the return of the FSLN to power. Moreover, using another figurehead company (Digital Media), González bought a third frequency, which was channel 9, the former relayer of Canal 6), disabling the channel from using its relayer upon its return in September 2011. Telecommunications and post regulator Telcor allegedly "offered" the relayer to the figurehead.[10]
Following the formal takeover of Televicentro by González by means of his figurehead company TV Móvil in 2015, coupled by the firing of the TVNoticias team and the presence of at least two of Ortega's sons (Laureano and Juan Carlos - the latter of which is the boss of TN8), put the channel under Honduran Carlos Pastora's management. Pastora is an important figure at Ratensa, but Televicentro is an independent operation, financed by González and the government.