TVI (Porowon)

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TVI was a short-lived Porowonian television channel owned by Porowon Press Holdings. It went on air on July 4, 2004, a few weeks after the government announced that it was going to relinquish its license to operate, and shut down on December 31.

History[edit | edit source]

For the first thirty years of television in Porowon, the government-led PBC dominated television from the onset. Television, under the control of the government, was subject to a thorough revision of its contents. Even the arrival of cable television didn't help.

A loophole was added to the Porowonian law in 1998 and it suggested that other entities were able to create their television networks using UHF frequencies. There were four contenders to the license:

TVGS withdrew from the process within days of the battle for the upcoming national network, due to issues between the managements of TVGS and the state broadcaster. By 1999, Taraki had left the race, resulting in a new race that dragged for years. In 2002, Porowon Press Holdings won the license.

However PPH was faced with numerous issues, including the bypassing of censorship measures imposed by the state-run PBC/TCP, buying the right programs for the new network and trying to compete against its soon-to-be direct competitor, Channel 4. This was noticed especially from the middle of 2003, when Channel 4 lost rights to some catalogs to the upcoming PPH television channel. There were also plans for a Japanese-language television channel.

In October 2003, PPH innaugurated its Media House. It housed its radio stations and had the ability to run the two upcoming television channels. The name TVI was revealed, as well as its logo, programming and presenters. It was also going to have its news operation, competing against Channel 4, but with the added bonus of being supported by the PPH newspapers. However, as the months passed, the government was willing to cut its transmission off by the end of 2004. PPH was skeptical over the decision and decided to let the channel launch without any problems.

A test signal of TVI, featuring just a slide containing the channel logo and the words "COMING SOON", appeared on UHF channel 32 on December 1, 2004. This was a sign that TVI was actually materializing rather than being a victim of the government's plan to reduce competition. On December 12, a video featuring programming that was going to air on the new channel was shown.

This infuriated the high chambers of the communication industry and on December 24, the Porowonian government issued an order for TVI to cease transmission on New Year's Eve, or sometime into New Year's Day. PPH workers, including the TVI team, were against this decision banded on the quick-fast by the Porowonian authorities and decided to put the channel on air "as soon as possible". Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were marked by protests against the government's decision to shut TVI down, but these protests seemed to stop on the 26th, as Porowon joined relief efforts for victims of the Hindic Ocean tsunami.

TVI eventually went on air on December 29th at 10am. The channel was on air until 1am and carried a varied schedule, including foreign television series, its own news bulletins at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm and even some sports. The PPH website had the schedule until January 2nd at least. Yet their homepage seemed to have a link to a petition begging for TVI to continue broadcasting past the new year. On December 30, the link to the petition was removed under the orders of TCP.

The channel shut down at 01:30 on January 1, 2005 - after three schedule days - amidst much sorrow and protest. The last program was a repeat of the 10pm news. The slot used by TVI was occupied by Bengali-language channel Ekushey in 2008, owned by PTV11 (now MCP TV11).

Programming[edit | edit source]