ANTV

The Fundación Audiovisual Nacional de Televisión (ANTV), based in Caracas, is the official television channel of Venezuela’s National Assembly, the country’s legislature. It broadcasts the Assembly’s sessions and legislative activity, presenting itself as the “Señal del Pueblo Legislador” (the legislating people’s channel), an official information channel for the National Assembly with programming aligned with the Bolivarian legislative project. ANTV began broadcasting in March 2005 as Asamblea Nacional Televisión, created to cover the proceedings and legislative activity of the National Assembly. It took its current form as a foundation around the turn of 2016, when the outgoing legislative majority transferred the former parliamentary channel’s operation to its workers and it was reconstituted as the Fundación Audiovisual Nacional de Televisión. The channel operates on television and through digital and streaming platforms.

Media assets

Television: ANTV

Ownership and governance

ANTV operates as the official television outlet of the National Assembly, but its post-2016 legal form is the Fundación Audiovisual Nacional de Televisión, created through a contested restructuring around the turn of 2016. After the opposition won the December 2015 parliamentary elections, the outgoing pro-government (PSUV) majority voted to transfer the former parliamentary channel’s assets and operation to its workers, and on 31 December 2015 the original channel stopped transmitting its own signal and briefly relayed the signal of Venezolana de Televisión; some legal experts questioned the legality of the transfer at the time. The foundation structure did not create editorial independence: the channel remained within the pro-government legislative-media ecosystem, continued to depend on state resources, and has served the Assembly under the PSUV-controlled legislature.

As the National Assembly’s own channel, ANTV’s editorial orientation follows the political control of the legislature, which has remained in PSUV hands. On 5 January 2026, Jorge Rodríguez was elected president of the National Assembly for the 2026 legislative year, with Pedro Infante and Grecia Colmenares, also of the PSUV, as first and second vice-presidents. This alignment is especially visible in 2026, after the United States capture of Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez’s assumption of acting presidential authority, when the PSUV-led Assembly remained headed by Jorge Rodríguez, Delcy Rodríguez’s brother. The channel’s editorial orientation is therefore tied to a legislature aligned with the executive, which is central to its State-Controlled classification.

Source of funding and budget

ANTV does not operate on an independent commercial basis. Earlier State Media Monitor research found that it remained fully government-funded and had faced financial strain in recent years as public resources tightened. Transparent, disaggregated budget data for the channel are not publicly available, and it has no substantial independent revenue base that would give it financial autonomy.

Editorial independence

ANTV functions as the parliamentary channel, tasked with broadcasting the legislature’s activities, and its stated mission is explicitly aligned with the governing project rather than with impartial public-service journalism. Because the channel is owned by and answerable to the National Assembly, its editorial orientation follows the political majority that controls the legislature. No statutory framework or independent oversight mechanism guaranteeing the channel’s editorial independence has been identified.

Since the January 2026 capture of Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez’s assumption of acting presidential authority, the state broadcasting apparatus, including the legislative channel, has continued to operate without interruption and has remained under government control, while adjusting its line to the new leadership. In the months since, anti-imperialist rhetoric aimed at the United States has largely receded from state media, and the interim administration has gradually removed public imagery associated with Maduro. As the Assembly’s own channel under a legislature still led by the governing bloc, ANTV has remained aligned with the government of the day. These shifts changed the content, not the structure: ANTV stays a legislative-branch state broadcaster with no editorial firewall.

AI and digital policy

ANTV distributes across broadcast, digital, and streaming platforms, including online coverage of Assembly sessions. State Media Monitor found no dedicated editorial policy governing the use of artificial intelligence at ANTV. Venezuela’s National Assembly approved an artificial-intelligence bill in first discussion in November 2024, but no ANTV-specific editorial AI policy or operational state-media AI-governance framework was identified by mid-2026.

Classification rationale

ANTV is classified State-Controlled because it operates as the official legislative television outlet of Venezuela’s National Assembly, depends on state and government resources, and has no binding editorial firewall or independent oversight mechanism. Its post-2016 foundation structure did not create autonomy from political control; the channel has remained part of the pro-government legislative-media ecosystem, and its editorial orientation tracks the Assembly majority. It is an institutional broadcaster of the state, not an autonomous public-service channel.