Half a century since the birth of that “UHF”

Known colloquially in its beginnings as UHF, La 2 de TVE celebrates fifty years of history with culture and public service as its banner.

This November 15 marks fifty years since the start of broadcasts by La 2 de Televisión Española, which in its early years was colloquially associated with the name UHF due to the emergence of this band throughout Europe.

When UHF technology began to be implemented in Spain, the Minister of Information and Tourism, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, decided that Televisión Española would launch a second television channel that would broadcast using that technology, as was happening in other European countries. On January 1, 1965, test broadcasts began in Madrid, with programming based on spaces already broadcast by Primera Cadena. Normally, the broadcasts were restricted to the night, with a four-hour slot in which musical spaces and rebroadcasts of the Newscast or of Study 1.

Regular programming began on November 15, 1966, with programs specifically produced for the second channel, of which the Barcelona production center made half of the programming. The first director of the channel was Salvador Pons Muñoz.

In the beginning, the second channel could only be tuned to the areas covered by the Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona links with programming restricted to the night, and not all receivers were prepared to receive UHF. We had to wait until 1982 for La 2's coverage to reach the entire national territory after the opening of the Canarian Territorial Center.

Durante este medio siglo de vida, La 2 ha pasado por numerosas etapas aunque en todas ellas la cultura y el servicios público han sido sus señas de identidad.

Hoy destaca una gran apuesta por el mejor cine español y europeo con History of our cinema y The cinema of La 2; los mejores documentales de historia, cultura o naturaleza en espacios como Documaster, El documental de La 2 o La noche temática. Y su apoyo a los programas culturales, que desde esta temporada cuentan con una franja de lunes a jueves a las 20:55 donde se ubican Essentials, La mitad invisible y Página Dos, ¡Atención Obras! y Movie days. Además, la parrilla cuenta con series y miniseries europeas y espacios nuevos o ya míticos que combinan entretenimiento con cultura y servicio público.