TV7 (Tarania)

TV7 was a Taranian commercial television channel owned by Alkeen.

History

Alkeen was one of the two backers of an older commercial network, TV1, in 1998. Within a few years it left TV1 and as a countermeasure to its changing formats, they decided to plan a new television channel.

In 2005, job advertisements appeared in Alkeen's newspapers saying "We need staff for a new television channel. Official name in private. We need staff for news, technical operations and program presenting". About 120 people signed up for the jobs, half of them had already worked at other television channels, including TNT, Nova and Centrum.

The first executive meeting was held on January 9, 2006, where the channel's name was accidentally leaked to members of the press and was spread by word of mouth to the press and on internet forums. What exactly was TV7 going to show was still an enigma, as many people were still skeptical, largely due to the fact that they didn't need a new TV1.

In June, Taraan Eter Rihtevpasoõn put up TV1's terrestrial frequencies up for sale to TV7. TV1 would still be carried on cable operators until its shutdown. Sirry, on the other hand, refused to carry TV1 and TV7 and simply put up TV7 instead. It was later announced that TV7 would launch on July 1, 2006, yet TV7's launch wasn't publicly advertised outside of Alkeen's newspapers. On June 30, its newspapers replaced TV1's schedule information with TV7's, and the following day at 11:00, TV7 launched.

TV7, unlike its "predecessor", was a combined news, entertainment and culture channel, initially broadcasting for sixteen hours a day (11:00 to 03:00). A few months later it became a 24/7 channel. It had a unique code of conduct: the news operation was drawn upon Alkeen's newspapers, it would broadcast prestiged television series and up to two hours of cultural programming a day.

The cultural programming was dropped by 2007, as it wasn't profitable and was compared to TNT 2's schedule.