Chilean Television on Shifting Terrain: Movement Toward a Postnetwork Era

Abstract

Two events rocked Chilean television in the first half of the 2010s. The first of these was an earthquake in 2010, and the second was the arrival in 2014 of the first Turkish soap opera to the screens of Chilean viewers. In this article, I situate these two events within an historical analysis of Chile’s movement to a postnetwork era. This digital transition has been marked by a much greater transnationalization both in property structure and in the viewing habits of the Chilean public. Although Chile could be considered an outlier in Latin America in terms of its digital access, my analysis emphasizes the importance of highlighting points of individual variation within the region to disaggregate regional-level conclusions regarding the state of “Latin American” television.