Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was a Venezuelan free-to-air television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was inaugurated on 15 November 1953 by William H. Phelps, Jr. Its radio counterpart was Radio Caracas Radio.
On 27 May 2007, president Hugo Chávez decided shut down the channel by refusing to renew their broadcast concession, accusing the channel of being involved in the 2002 coup d'état in Venezuela, which briefly overthrew his government. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) upheld the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) decision. RCTV continued to broadcast via pay television RCTV Internacional. In January 2010, RCTV was sanctioned with temporary closure. It rejected the Venezuelan media regulator's finding that it was a domestic media provider. On 7 September, 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the refusal to renew the concession was an "indirect restriction on the exercise of freedom of expression [...] aimed at impeding the communication and circulation of ideas and opinions", that the government violated the right to due process and that it must restore the concession for RCTV. The Venezuelan government has ignored the ruling.