| PAT | |
| Launch Date: | 1990 (production company) September 1998 (channel) |
| Owner: | Periodistas Asociados de Televisión PAT Ltda. |
| Country: | Bolivia |
| Picture Format: | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 480i for the SD feed) |
| Website: | www.redpat.tv |
| Terr Serv 1: | Digital UHF |
| Terr Serv 2: | Analog UHF |
| Terr Chan 2: | Listings may vary |
PAT (Periodistas Asociados Televisión), also called Red PAT, is a Bolivian over-the-air television channel founded in August 1990 by the politician and journalist Carlos Mesa.
On August 1, 1990, Carlos Mesa, Mario Espinoza,[1] Amalia Pando[2] and Ximena Valdivia[3] created the PAT company, initially as a news producer. The idea originated when at Telesistema Boliviano, Pando, Mesa and Espinoza, agreed to establish their own news production company (the first of its kind in Bolivia); Valdivia provided the loans. The independent news production company produced two newscasts: 2nd Edition at noon and 3rd Edition at night. The name 1st Edition was reserved until the birth of the channel. The first channel was Canal Once, under the direction of René Meyer, broadcasting began on September 15 of the same year. In 1990 it was broadcast on América Televisión (channel 6 in La Paz); and in 1997 to Bolivisión when it was just beginning its broadcasts, its headquarters were on Av. Saavedra in Miraflores and the production company had no problems since its birth, it won the 1992-1997 tender of the ADN-MIR alliance (being the only bidder), the 1997-2001 tender of the MNR Government. Apart from the newscast, the PAT production company produced three more programs: De Frente, hosted and directed by Amalia Pando, focused on investigative reporting; Behind the News hosted by Mario Espinoza with a documentary format and focused on historical events and De Cerca hosted by Carlos Mesa, but broadcast from the ATB network studios. Carlos Mesa's production company was also involved in the production of a national film: Jonás y la ballena rosada, a joint production with Mexico.[4] in 1995. Between September 1983 and March 1998, one of its main programs, De Cerca, conducted 472 interviews, statistically more than half were given to 81 personalities, with Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada appearing a record fifteen times.[5]
In August 1997, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada handed over the presidential sash to Hugo Banzer Suarez. Its main partner is the MIR, the conflict arose when PAT (through the bidding of the then TVB) denounced the so-called narco-links, emphatically denounced by PAT. This time, the anti-gonism that was in the government would not make any more concessions. With Carlos Mesa leaving TVB, he founded his own channel, with the same name as his production company, PAT. In October 1998, PAT moved a few meters higher and inaugurated its new building. The list indicated the three main shareholders and two minor shareholders: Barbery, Mesa and Valdivia.
With the corporate participation of the owner of El Deber, the airing of PAT was financed. To make it a reality, 100,000 US dollars were deposited in the Telecommunications Superintendency (current ATT) to obtain the license. Another development was the creation of Ítaca on August 1, 1998, with four new shareholders. PAT moves from its former two-floor facility to a new five-floor building.[5] In September 1998 PAT became a national network.[6]
The channel initially pledged not to broadcast telenovelas, but eventually started airing a Brazilian one.[5]
Once Carlos Mesa left the direction of PAT, Abdallah Edmond Daher Bulus, a shareholder of Aerosur, bought his shares and the identity of the channel changed and the Santa Cruz branch became more important. In the 2002 general elections, the MNR, the party for which Mesa was running, won by a small margin. The time was turbulent and just a few months later Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada resigned the presidency and Carlos Mesa assumed office. In 2003 Mario Espinoza created a program called El Pentagono where the future vice president Álvaro García Linera regularly attended as a panelist and also Verónica Larrieu,[7] a model from Santa Cruz. Amalia Pando resigns due to differences between her and the other shareholders of the network.
The government of Evo Morales was constantly criticized in No Mentirás and focused on the economic and legal suffocation of the Aerosur airline, pointing to one of its shareholders Abdallah Daher, who as owner of Red PAT made these criticisms. Finally, in 2012, after years of economic and legal problems, Aerosur closed and Abdallah Daher had to sell his shares in PAT, making it a condescending media outlet for the ruling party.[8]
According to a 2011 survey conducted by Revista IN, PAT was the fourth most watched national network in Bolivia, with 8% of the audience share, up from 4% in 2008.[9]
Between 2012 and 2019, the PAT network had adopted a different editorial line. The programming is based on newscasts, talk-shows, reality-shows and some self-produced documentaries. The main newscasts are broadcast from Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz. Also since 2015, it begins to pay licenses from Televisa, Telemundo, Grupo Imagen and Nickelodeon, among others.
PAT had become a parastatal outlet since 2011 and was partial to the Government of Evo Morales. The channel is accused of evading taxes in exchange for being the third channel to receive advertising and government sponsorship (behind Bolivia TV and Red ATB, first and second respectively), in addition to being managed by businessmen related to former vice president Álvaro García Linera. In return for this, the company that owns it begins to produce documentaries that, according to its editorial line, favor the government party.
In 2015, the channel premiered an adaptation of the Peruvian format Esto es guerra, which in the middle of that year was renewed for a second season.[10]
In this case, Marcelo Hurtado was implicated in the irregular purchase of PAT, which led to his arrest and being charged on January 3, 2020, by the Bolivian Prosecutor's Office.[11] Hurtado is released, and then he is detained again,[12] this time, by ATB. Months later he reported being extorted by prosecutor Marco Cossió to give up shares and control over ATB.
Unlike ATB and La Razón, PAT did not take up an editorial line favorable to the MAS-IPSP and the government of Luis Arce.
The former executives, with former minister Hector Arce Zaconeta as lawyer, begin a legal battle against Daher to regain financial and editorial control of the outlet.[13] However, on November 17, 2021, Judge Angela Patricia Hira restored PAT's shares in favor of Daher.[14]
| Location | Channel | |
|---|---|---|
| Trinidad | 42 | |
| Sucre | 42 | |
| Cochabamba | 42 | |
| La Paz | 39 | |
| Oruro | 42 | |
| Cobija | 42 | |
| Potosí | 42 | |
| Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 42 | |
| Tarija | 42 |
On June 18, 2009, PAT's news service ran a report showing supposed footage of the Air France crash that happened nineteen days earlier. It was revealed that the footage came from the pilot of Lost.[16] The photos were supposedly attributed to supposed passenger Paulo Muller, which was non-existent, and the supposed Air France plane was from the fictional airline Oceanic Airlines, name used in a variety of TV series and movies, to prevent allusions to real-life airlines and their accidents.[17] The camera supposedly came from Serra do Cachimbo in Brazil.[18]