The executives from the Chilean channel spoke with ttvnews in Miami about the growth registered in 2024 and how they are positioned to maintain the upward trend this year, with a strategy of format innovation and digital expansion.

*By Luis Cabrera, Fernando Moreno and Ana Paula Carreira, from Miami, USA

“We are the only channel in Chile that in 2024 grew in market share and audience compared to 2023.” This is how Francisco Fulla, COO of Canal 13, summed up what was a great year for the Chilean channel.

“In the morning, with a fairly significant growth, we went from fourth a few years ago to fighting for first place. In access prime, where we had a good second place years ago, we added this program to the newscast, Family Feud. A habit was created where we have a better performance in prime time. And to that we added in 2024 a fiction that we had not released, we had it saved, and we made the reach of the good performance of prime time extend to almost three time slots. We wanted as a strategy where people would turn off the TV with our channel and wake up the next day also with the channel. This made us have a good 2024 in general,” added Alexis Zamora, Content Manager of Canal 13.

In dialogue with ttvnews from the new edition of Content Americas in Miami, the executives explained how this great achievement positions them for what will be a 2025 of big bets.

“The final part of 2024 ended in a very strong competitive environment on the four prime-time broadcast TV channels, something that has not happened for many years. And it is something that challenges us to see how we are going to face this 2025,” said Fulla.

“We have a programming strategy planned for 2025/26, and we are going to improve details within that same schedule. We made a decision to compete with programming that was stripped down, massive, transversal and to reach the largest possible audience, leaving aside the big events in pursuit of a strategy of keeping the audience captive for longer during the year,” he continued. “What has happened is that other channels have responded strongly by taking on these sporting events or festivals, which are formats that last a short time but that bring in robust audiences. And that forces us to take charge from now on of incorporating these types of elements into our schedule.”

“In prime time, reality shows are what has led us to success, moving from formats like Tierra Brava to others like Palabra de honor… the public has been entertained and has been changing to various different formats. We want to go next year to make a change around maintaining a reality show, but making a profound change of world, so that the public does not stop being present. Chile asks a lot for novelty, for the elements of the format to change,” explained the Content Manager.

And it is these successful reality shows that have allowed Canal 13 to also extend beyond linear TV to other platforms and business models.

“Furthermore, looking ahead to 2025 we are developing a strategy that is not only about broadcast TV, but we want to attract the largest possible audience to the C13 ecosystem, not only on broadcast TV but also digital and other lines of business that we are developing. The idea is that we can reach the audience on different platforms. We have good digital numbers and we are trying to combine the work to generate synergies. For example, we have nighttime reality shows that are not only doing well on broadcast TV but also on digital. We are convinced that this is what we have to achieve today.”

“As Canal 13 we have established that content must always be at the center of the decisions we make. We have the challenge of incorporating other areas and ways of presenting content from the open market. The broadcast TV market has decreased in Chile in the last decade, which forces you to look for other commercial opportunities and other platforms such as digital. It is not that people do not want to consume content, but that they consume it at other times and in other ways. For this reason, for example, we develop digital content, such as a reality channel that offers extended content of what is seen on broadcast TV. We have also made a strong incursion into Reacts, where one can see live what happens in reality shows along with the reaction of a panel, where we have more than 100,000 views every night,” he concluded.

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