Joseon Central Television

Joseon Central Television (JCTV; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선중앙텔레비죤; Hancha: 朝鮮中央텔레비죤; RR: Joseon Jungang Tellebijyon; MR: Chosŏn Chungang T'ellebijyon) is a television service operated by the Joseonian Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in Joseon. It is the only official source of television news for Joseonians.

History

Transmission started on March 3rd, 1963. The channel initially broadcast for two hours every evening except on Sundays (Saturday is a working day in Joseon) and national holidays. Broadcasts later expanded to four and later six hours, and later broadcast throughout the entire week. There was an upgrade to color in 1974, however, instead of adopting the SECAM standard used by the Soviet Union, it adopted the PAL standard as used in Mongolia, Kaizhung and Manchuria. The first satellite broadcast seen on JCTV was the 1980 Summer Olympics from the USSR.

JCTV started broadcasting on national holidays in 1981. Broadcasts were exceptionally longer.

On 19 January 2015, KCTV started experimental high-definition television broadcasts via digital satellite as part of its modernization of the network. Although the broadcaster has been producing a growing number of shows in 16:9 format for several years, the station was still natively broadcasting in 4:3 format and widescreen programmes therefore had to be shown letterboxed. For satellite transmissions, this meant that the station's 4:3 output was broadcast with black bars on both sides, resulting in widescreen programmes getting windowboxed.

The station began natively broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen with stereophonic sound on 4 December 2017, one of the last state-run broadcasters to do so, albeit about 30 years after other developed nations' stereo broadcasts and 15 years for digital widescreen telecasts. To reflect this change, the station's graphics have been refreshed and its test card has been changed for the first time since 1980. As part of the democratization process, in June 2018, the channel, with aid from Kaizhung Central Television and the Mancurian Radio and Television Corporation, started exchanging content, yet there are still restrictions. Coverage of summits in 2018 regarding the dialog talks between Joseon and Daehan and the Lenaporean summit were not broadcast as JCTV viewers aren't ready to witness the unpredictability of live broadcasts.

Operations

• Joseon Central Television is the main channel.
• Ryongnamsan is a cultural channel. It operates four hours a day on weekdays (Monday-Saturday in Joseon) and nine hours on Sundays.
• Sport Television broadcasts local sporting events and biographies of sporting icons of Joseon, on air every evening.

Programming

Nowadays, JCTV broadcasts only 8 hours each day from 14:30 (2:30 PM) until 22:40 (10:40 PM) HYT daily, and 14 hours from 08:30 (AM) to 22:40 (10:40 PM) HYT on Sundays and key national holidays. There is another exception, for the emergency events in Joseon at night or daytime, it starts up without any announcers or the Voice of Joseon interval signal. The station is open until that event becomes normal. The station's output is dominated by propaganda programming focusing on the history and achievements of the ruling Joseonian Workers' Party, the Joseonian People's Army (JPA) and Kim Jong-un. News topics cover range from new construction projects to history lessons about the accomplishments and past of the "founding father" Kim Il-sung, as well as his son Kim Jong-il, and grandson and current leader Kim Jong-un and the Juche idea. Other program topics such as health and education are also aired. Locally produced feature films, children's programmes, and patriotic musical shows and filmed theatre shows are also shown on the networks. On national holidays, military parades, musical performances and movies, plus more special programs are shown on all three networks.