Monday, January 25, 2010

Google Challenge of the Day

Step one, Venezuela: plug in the word 'RCTV' into Google news and see how many responses you get. I tried it just now from the 'Google News Venezuela' page and got 4,323 returns about how last week the Venezuelan RCTV cable TV station has been pulled off the air (by the cable operators and not the government itself, apparently) because it wouldn't show the 'cadena nacional' Hugo segments.

Step two Peru: plug in the word 'Yurimaguas' in Google news and see how many responses you get. I tried it just now from the 'Google News Peru' page and got 75 returns, but only 26 stories about how last week the Peruvian Canal 8 de Radio Televisión de Oriente en Yurimaguas TV station has been pulled off the air (by government itself and via full licence revokal for technical reasons....something about not upgrading to new equipment, true for 95% of all Peru TV stations) but is really about the dissent towards Twobreakfasts' APRA shown by this station deep in the heart of the Amazon region of the country.

And hey, that's just with the Spanish language news services. When it comes to using Google News in the English language, the RCTV story gets 4,371 hits (up to now..more to come for sure) and the Yurimaguas story gets 2 (yes, two).

I wonder why?

UPDATE: Extra info on RCTV coming thru via Utpal in the comments section:
Btw, it's not just the cadena nacional, it's the whole shabang "Ley Resorte" thing (playing the national anthem, observing supervised hours etc etc). RCTV had avoided being subject to the social responsibility law by claiming to be "international", but CONATEL determined recently that it's programming was, like 90% Venezuelan, so it made no sense to claim that is wasn't "national".

I suspect they are gonna be back soon.