Something happened to the Canal. hard to imagine platforms for a chain and more paid, subscription days, streaming and an overwhelming—indigestible?—excess of audio-visual content like what we’ve been through. Whether you’re a subscriber or not, whether you have the legendary black VHS player-sized decoder under the TV in the living room or not, living in Spain and not getting to know him was impossible.

And I’m not talking about the brand, the logo, or any more or less common idea of ​​its programming. No. I’m talking about getting to know him as you know the habits and customs of your upstairs neighbor.

Between the late 90’s and early 2000’s, small black cross and multicolored ringwas part of the national scene, which was later transformed into a simple and much more sober white banner with a black background. Same as Carmen Sevilla’s sheep or Grand Prix’s heifers.

Unless you’re a hermit trapped in a cave in Lugo Mariña, you knew Manolo Sanlúcar’s guitar chords from his melody, you knew Lo + Plus, puppets by Michael Robinson and Hilario Pino. Good gameThe next day, after-dinner chats with ‘Friends’, annoying gray lines with their out-of-tune dances, and yes, yes, plus those late-night porn movies that you can watch even if you don’t subscribe with a piece of bulbous paper or a strainer.

If you walked into a bar, it was there. its black decoder If you’ve visited a lucky friend who’s under the TV and a “Plus” subscriber, he’s likely kept his monthly magazine open on the kitchen table, along with the next weeks’ programming.

And it’s only fair that “el Plus” is so well known.

A chain with its own personality

After all, and courtesy of the makeshift Channel 10, it was the first pay-to-pay channel to succeed in a Spain accustomed to such a miserable television network, so extremely poor that it would have sounded like science fiction to anyone. centennial Used to Netflix and HBO.

It makes my head spin to say this, but Canal+’s origins go back to Spain. 80sHave dinner by watching Felipe González and One, two three, or Joaquín Prat’s fair price. In 1988 it was the Manager who decided to bid on three licenses for analogue private television.

One was for Antena 3. Another was for Telecinco. And third for an actress, it may seem less familiar to viewers at the time: Sogecable, which was later transformed into Prisa TV. Of course, with special conditions. It would broadcast for six hours. Here’s where Canal+ comes in and its distinctive content offering: With a quarter of the day with an open bar and three quarters with pointless bars, it’s understandable only to those who can get one of their decoders for 3,000 pesetas a month.

Setting up and running the project required some time and footage. Test emissions started June 1990 and three months later, already at the gates of autumn, it began regularly. Guitar strumming of Sanlúcar, little black cross, multicolored ring… And shooting.

It didn’t take long for viewers of the time to become familiar with its distinctive aesthetic, the jumps between clear and encrypted content, and the careful and quality programming. It eventually created a loophole in the TV channel presets. and through it in their own homes.

In 1997, even in the next decade, the project took another step with the creation of Canal Satélite and leap into the digital world, expanding its distribution with Canal+ Azul and Canal+ Rojo. Years later, already in XXI, after the merger of Canal Satélite Digital and Via Digital, Digital+ was launched.

As if its pioneering status wasn’t enough to be included in the national television chronicle, “el Plus” came to prominence very early on. your commitment to content: blockbuster premieres, a sports offer that makes it almost essential for any bar looking to make money on Sundays, series like ‘Friends’ or ‘Seinfeld’, porn movies and the ability to choose a format, something that helps it French Channel experience +.

Interviews by Swchartz, Pradera, and García-Siñeriz on Lo + Plus – everything from Hollywood stars to politicians, football players and high-end intellectuals showcased on their sets – sports in The Day After analyzes with a foreign accent, the quality of the film The zapping montages or news of guiñol on the left one of the best moments on tv Spanish of the time. Whether or not that impression is shared, the awards should definitely at least appreciate how well it takes care of the design.

In its efforts to innovate, it even mocked formats like 3D (hello Canal+3D).

Canal+’s was a story connected to its own story. national television chronicle. At your birth. In evolution. And in retirement. After the launch and founding of Canal Satélite in 1997, the next big change came in 2005, when their public broadcasting was discontinued.

The remaining analog void has been filled by Cuarto, a new channel that is 100 percent open. With a first farewell gesture, the contents remained on the Digital+ payment platform.

The next major breakthrough came in 2014, when Telefónica bought Canal+, followed by Movistar+. Yes, it was already a foretaste, a warning of a more radical change that would mark the end of an era: in February 2016, “el Plus” was replaced by a new chain, #0.

your brand It remained on the Movistar platform, but the identity we all know as the upstairs neighbor that made it famous in the ’90s and early 2000s was long gone.

His memory remains its historic place in the national television chronicle.

Y mountain of urban legendsas if the onion peel was really enough.