TV Two

TV Two is the main television channel of the Second Authority for Radio and Television. It was founded in 1985 and is a semi-commercial television channel under the auspices of the current Michillian law.

History

Talks of a second channel are older than TV Two itself. In the 60s, Alpha Television, a production company bent on exporting television series to international audiences, had plans to break MBC's television monopoly by launching a commercially-operated television channel, but restrictions imposed by the Catholic-led government has led to a series of backfires, despite there being plans for the channel not to broadcast on Sundays.

The Second Authority for Radio and Television was set up in 1981, and when it was officially founded in 1984, it awarded the well-coveted license for the second channel. At 18:30 on July 24, 1985, TV Two made its first broadcast, although the television ward of the SARTV was yet to be finished. As a consequence, TV Two broadcast "regular but experimental" programming from improvised facilities until September 1 of the same year, when the television ward was innaugurated.

Initially TV Two lived on a high number of imports: imports that they snatched from the MBC or imports that, until 1984, were deemed "too hot" for the conservative Michillian society. Based on the imports TV Two broadcast in its first few years, the channel managed to sustain a local production industry to rival that of the MBC. The creation of Michillies On Air eased the creation of new series.

The 90s saw the creation of a Gaelic production department to compete and the MBC and the premiere of a weekly entertainment show, Moonlight, still on air to this very day.

The launch of two new channels, ITN and TVA, did manage to give TV Two less visibility. As a consequence, the structure of the channel was retooled.