TV1 (Tarania)

TV1 was a Taranian commercial television channel that broadcast from April 1, 1998 to June 30, 2006. It was replaced by TV7 on its terrestrial network of frequencies. The channel was entirely owned by local interests.

TV1 was stable in two stages of its existence: upon launch in 1998 and following a reformat of the channel in early 2003. Like many former commercial channels not operated by the "big two" (CME and Centrum, later CME and Taranian Media Group), it became a hostage of political meddling leading to its shutdown by voluntary order.

History

Before TV1, UHF channel 46 in Syktyvykar (also allocated to cable channel 7) was occupied by many low-budget television channels and, for a period in 1996, by TV Tarania, a then-new service from Taraan Nacionalaan Rihtevpasoõn targeting the diaspora. In 1997, the government decided to give the unstable frequency (and other frequencies, some were used and some weren't) to a new private enterprise.

Two media groups, Alkeen and Monaan made a joint bid to win the license. It managed to use the frequencies of a cable channel, TKT-2, on the verge of collapse at the time of the announcement, that was also broadcasting terrestrially in Syktyvykar. As a stopgap measure, Stil (Style), later Stil TV1 made experimental transmissions before, in early 1998, being replaced by an endless promotional spot for the new service.

The channel inherited its late night pornographical slot which was considered legal at the time, even though TKT-2 was, in essence, a port of a cable channel on the terrestrial network. It was broadcast on the early hours of weekends and was sold to third-party companies.

Initially the channel's launch was supposed to be on January 15, 1998 - unfortunately, due to uncertainties with the project - the launch was pulled to February, and later April 1, 1998. TV1 had paid over 2 million rehkis for signing an exclusive deal with Columbia-TriStar (now Sony Pictures Entertainment) over an exclusive rights deal that had beaten former bidder Centrum, as well as hiring some of Centrum's workforce in order to power the new channel. It eventually launched on the scheduled date, and ended up in third place behind Centrum and TNT 1, and above the CME-controlled Nova, TNT 2 and TNT 3.

TV1 was divided into four channels (with the pornographical content being broadcast, legally, on a separate channel, thus meaning that TV1 was unoficially divided into five channels): a lifestyle channel, featuring mainly local productions; a news channel, responsible for the news operation; an entertainment channel, dominating most of the schedule; and a music channel, based loosely on MTV's format. Technically TV1 was a channel in its own right, yet dividing it into four channel was considered to be "marketing speak". The 4-in-1 format didn't convince and was dropped within a year to become a combined TV1 channel.

The pornographical channel, Inteem (Intimate) broadcast Thursdays to Saturdays (early hours of Fridays to Sundays) from midnight to 03:00. Its predecessor was Klimaks (Climax) which operated from Pannonia and was fed to TKT-2 under a similar structure. Programming was low-budget in comparison to its "regular" counterpart and the films were considered to be terrible. Eyewitness accounts on Taranian forums and the internet talk-show Mehteen Astaan? said that the fact that TV1 timeshared with Inteem was considered to be "too uncomfortable" for people who collaborated to the channel and that reactions towards them were often of a sexual nature. As a countermeasure, TNT's news program, Meenan Baide uguns Teheen, often had a television set tuned to the channel, and sometimes its late edition would encroach into Inteem's schedule. The solution was to either switch one of the sets that was broadcasting TV1 to another channel or switch it off. In 1999, TNT newsreader Ahseep Jölkfasteen received an off-air announcement during a repeat of a report on a debate at the Assembly about the legalization of drugs and the presenter heard one of the technicians scream "Inteem is on" with the presenter responding with a resounding "Please, turn to TNT 1. They will never know" being heard by mistake. Nonetheless, Inteem was still counted as part of TV1's schedule (despite legally being another channel) and it made TV1 become, literally, an overnight sensation, quickly becoming the leading network.

Inteem's success managed to boost TV1's reputation, although there were mixed feelings from the members of the society in general. TV1 decided to sign more former Centrum staff in order to host Sierran-style late night talk-shows (shown in early primetime) and made a surprise announcement that it had negotiated with UEFA to broadcast UEFA Eurecti 2000 with TNT 1, where TNR acted as the licensee. Northulian soap opera Home and Away joined the schedule but left in 2001.

Following Euro 2000, TV1 was at a crossroads and had said that "investing in sporting events is not rentable". The channel eventually hurled away its deal with CTS and many of its staff to Centrum. TV1 had fallen from its brief reign in first place to fourth place, as Centrum had become the leading television channel for the first time in just over a decade of operations. The channel still managed to end up in second or third place occasionally on weekends because of Inteem, as large numbers of people, who were still awake at the hours it was on, were still interested, and was even a popular subject during recess talks, even though the channel was legally banned for people under the age of 18.

Sometime in late 2002, the channel was knocked off air due to technical failures with Taraan Telekom. For hours, all that TV1 viewers saw was a TT test card. By 12:00, the signal was re-established.

In December 2002, architect Jandaal Aroõn, famous in the late 80s and early 90s for a series of crude videos involving sexual "dentist scams", bought half of TV1, the 50% that belonged to Monaan, who decided to leave the television business because it was generating losses. A few weeks later, TV1 relaunched with excessive local production and new Northulian series like All Saints. In September 2003, a new television law was enacted that banned Inteem from broadcasting due to free carriage of pornography, and was TV1's prime source of revenue for five years. The enactment of the law suggested that it would protect children from watching pornographical content. The Inteem programming was downgraded to a cruder program known under the English title of Sin, which ran until 2006. Political talk-shows replaced the entertainment ones, an advantage from having lost the pornographical slot. In November 2003, Alkeen sold its shares to the architect and decided to create a new ambitious project, TV7.

Although the channel was really stable, it began experiencing a crisis in 2004 but the effects were quickly alleviated because the channel acquired NBS comedy series, the so-called Nashcom series that TNT had stopped broadcasting, and a show called FMTV, a music show that was often recorded in malls and where the host visited local radio stations. It was highly suggested that TV1 was going for a new demographic: the lower class, similar to Nova before the CME takeover, but the channel eventually went through a rapid backfire and was declared bankrupt. It would cede its terrestrial frequencies to Alkeen's TV7, a channel that focused more on news rather than entertainment, and that it would continue broadcasting on cable until June 30, 2007, a date set up by the Supreme Court.

TV1's terrestrial broadcast shut down at 23:57 on June 30, 2006. The last evening for terrestrial viewers (about 40% of TV1's viewership base) consisted of an extended debate where they talked about their memories of the channel. When the debate ended, the signal switched off abruptly and went to a black screen for more than ten hours before its terrestrial successor made its debut. Some cable networks had problems when TV1 relocated to lower viewership slots for a few days. The "new" TV1 largely consisted of repeats of prerecorded content, prefiguring what Centrum would become over a decade later upon its shutdown by bankruptcy. It still had a news operation, restored on July 7, but terminated on October 7. The news bulletins still lasted for half an hour before being reduced to a quarter hour upon restarting and then five minutes without any news footage at all. The channel's EPG stopped working and the website was still active.

It is known that the channel stopped broadcasting in March 2007. The exact date is unknown, yet Sirry, the largest cable operator, refused to carry the "dying channel" outright from its downgrade. Like other former private channels that were shut down due to government meddling and political bias, no reunions of any sort were made.

Programming

News

• Neremoõhti TV1 (TV1 News)
• Moõstanleen (Frontline): a political talk-show that debuted in October 2003.

Entertainment

• Jo Tanaan TV1 (Good Morning TV1): initially it was a morning talk-show, but by its last phase it had become a morning gymnastics show.
• Guest Star
• Ehlet.tn (Life.tn)
• Manasteed Kahn: primetime talk-show
• FMTV

TV series

• [USS] Dawson's Creek (1999-2001): when the contract with CST was given over to Nova, the show left the channel.
• [NTL] Home and Away (1999-2001): the show was later given to TNT 3, then Nova and now is on TNT 3 again.
• [NLD] Yes, Prime Minister
• [NLD] Monty Python's Flying Circus (2005)
• [NLD] The Fast Show (2005): the series has been aired by TNT 2 first, in the 2000s the Taranian dub of the series was broadcast by TV1, Centrum and Nova. It's really popular and TNT still repeats the show having reacquired the rights several times by succeeding administrations.

Sports

• UEFA Euro 2000
• 21aan Klub (Club of 21): football discussion show