Burton Television

Burton Television (often known as just Burton) is a Bensonian national broadcast television network owned by the Burton Group. The network and group president is Robert Addison, who is also the leader of the Family Restoration Church. In a legal sense, Burton is a parallel business to the controversial FRC, as an entire sect is unable to control 100% of the network.

Burton has been occupying the third slot in ratings, having lost the second place to NTS.

Name

The name was inherited from Burton Radio. The name, in turn, comes from Richard Burton, founder of Richard Burton's Records, and in turn founder of the radio station.

Unlike most of its competitors, its name is never abbreviated to BTV. It is simply shortened to just Burton on air and in print.

History

Burton Television was the second television channel to sign on in Grand Rapids and tbe third in Bensonia, after two Inca Television stationd in Grand Rapids and Galveston that signed on in 1950 and 1951, respectively. Since the shutdown of the Inca network, including the two stations that were already mentioned, Burton has become the oldest-surviving television channel in the country.

Burton Radio had initially bid for channel 7 in Grand Rapids, but the bid got quickly overtaken by the Sentry Organization. The consortium had to bid channel 5 instead, defeating a bid for a local community television channel that was deemed unviable.

Burton initially planned to go on air on September 7, 1953, a national holiday, but delays in equipment had lead to its delay to September 27, at precisely 8:53pm. During its early years, Burton Television aired a lot of music shows, including interviews with famous national and international musicians. On September 18, 1955, Inca's fifth anniversary (now known as National Television Day), Burton broadcast Bensonia's first televised match. In the same year, it made a deal with GTV-13 (PRGS-TV) to relay Burton's content. This led to the creation of the United Broadcasters.

On April 21, 1960, Burton through the United Broadcasters consortium broadcast images of the founding of Bensonland. Upon its construction, channel 8 was given to the network, allowing it to expand nationwide. In May, a fire hit Burton's studios and they had to broadcast GTV-13 programming to sustain. Further fires had followed in 1966 and 1969.

In 1968, Burton established its new broadcasting tower. Its proto-network broadcast the Oscars for the first time on Bensonian television in 1972, two years later, it broadcast the first live World Cup.

In 1975, Sangster Saints buys 40% of Burton Television's assets and had to buy an extra 10% under judicial law. At the time, Burton Television experimented pooling with a new partner in Galveston, TVS, a de facto independent station that Sangster Saints had set up.

When Inca Television shut down in 1980, Sangster Saints decided to buy a few licenses and create the National Television System which signed on in August 1981. This led to Burton's downfall, and as a consequence it bought the channel 9 license in Galveston as compensation in 1982. Nonetheless, Sangster Saints remained with the network for a few more years, even though its national coverage was higher than Burton's. In 1986, the station broadcast the World Cup from Huasco under the condition that NTS would make its coverage a simulcast with Burton. The NTS-Burton alliance was known as "United, We Will Win" (Bensonia had qualified for the 1986 World Cup, but was disqualified and didn't make it to the knockout stage). With the consolidation of NTS, Sangster Saints left Burton, and channel 9 in Galveston was auctioned off.

Soon after learning of the sale of the channel, the leader of the Family Restoration Church, Robert Addison, became interested in buying Burton. On November 18, 1989, he bought the network while abroad.

The network was later imbroiled in a transitional process where Addison decided what content would survive the takeover and what would not. The schedule from November 29 to December 5, 1989 consisted largely of old cartoons, causing the station to reach negative viewing figures.

In 1990, Addison took over full control, and wanted to make Burton a national network. Initially it was rumored that the FRC would take over the entire network, but this was denied both by the regulatory body and Addison. Addison suggested that a small portion of the daily programming would be given to the FRC. This phase was also marked by a successful attempt to regain Burton as a national network, built primarily by foreign programming.

Controversies

Robert Addison's control

The sale of Burton in 1989 to businessman Robert Addison is still controversial: the Federal Police conducted an investigation in which they discovered that part of the money used by Addison for the purchase of the station consisted of interest-free loans from his Family Restoration Church. The leader of the FRC was sentenced to pay a fine for not having declared this money. In 1992, the station's studios, still located in Maine, suffered another fire in which several documents related to the sale of Burton were lost, causing the transaction to owe more satisfactory explanations.

Editorial guidelines

The Burton Television Network maintains a strict list of editorial guidelines, accusing the network of censorship. These rules have been cemented in August 2021 with the creation of an internal manual known as the "Anti-Rebecca Doyle manual" (unofficial name, attributed mainly due to a recurring joke among the employees of the network). These standards were put to place in 1990, but with the passing of the years, tightened measures by both Robert Addison and the FRC have led to further restrictions. The manual was assembled following a scandal from the Speak Bensonia presenter.

The rules are as follows:

• News presenters and journalists are forbidden from giving their opinion on the news, saying that the duty is reserved to commentators.
  • Related to the above, presenters are forbidden from showing facial expressions that justify their opinion.
• There are many rules for social media outlets:
  • Political opinions are forbidden.
  • Photos of presenters (from O&Os and affiliates) with "very little clothes" can lead to the presenter being fired from the network.
    • A presenter in Warang, Gilbert Heeds, was banned from the local affiliate due to a picture of him with blue underpants in Hampton. He moved to the NTS affiliate as a countermeasure.
    • Before the Heeds scandal, Adrianne Galalau was banned after a topless scandal in 2003.
    • Mary-Anne Martinet in Greengroves was banned fired owing to "psychological torture" in May 2021. The presenter was subject to an emergency meeting showing the bikini photos that led to her firing.
    • Generally speaking, people working for Burton TV have their social media profiles formatted to promote the network and its programming.
• According to rumors, constant changes to the make-up of presenters didn't appease to the administration, forcing the presenters to follow strict make-up and clothing recommendations.
• Robert Addison and the connection with the FRC is subliminal. Likewise since Burton operates under a secular license (as churches like the FRC are forbidden from operating direct terrestrial television licenses), Addison imposes censorship practices to its content:
  • Devotion of faiths other than neo-pentecostalism:
    • Staff has to cover Catholic symbols, thanks largely due to a 1995 FRC incident.
    • In Trucking Bensonia, after Robert Addison got the rights to air the show on its three networks (Burton TV, Burton News and MyTV), in order to pander to Addison, intervenients must hide their religious devotions.
    • Participants in the network's reality show, Farm (competitor of Big Brother Bensonia) were reported to talk about religious affairs (mostly Catholic), but when editing in highlights, such comments were cut.
    • Women are forbidden from using crucifixes.
  • LGBT content isn't tolerated:
    • The author of The Mutants, a trilogy of soap operas with supernatural elements, said that LGBT kisses were forbidden.
    • Instances of LGBT romance are cut on Farm, on both the live shows and the paid live stream.
    • Instances of societal LGBT issues are cut from the above.
  • DJ Peter Saithen was once invited for Farm, but had to alter the a lyric from one of his songs because of potential sexual references.
• Soap operas produced by the network are also subject to strict guidelines.
  • In recent years, Addison has been pushing more towards soap opears with Biblical or religious themes.
    • The boss is one of Robert Addison's children, Christianne Addison. Many authors left because of Christianne's selfish acts.