Television in the Botojan Islands

Television in the Botojan Islands has a history of more than thirty years. Unitel, the first terrestrial television channel in the country, started broadcasting on July 15, 1990 on channel 2, owned by foreigners. The first truly-local television channel, One Television, signed on in December 1993, and was taken over by the Botojan Broadcasting Corporation in 2010. Currently there are 18 registered terrestrial television channels, for a country of 200,000, of which about eight of them are nationwide state-owned television channels owned by children of president Damien Tupa, and two of them have the right to broadcast over digital terrestrial. The country uses ISDB-T since its adoption in 2017.

History

The Botojan Islands for many years resisted the introduction of television, due to multiple reasons, including the belief that the Botojan Islands were a small country and that it would harm the local cultural customs. There were several plans as far back as 1964, under Hopelandian control, but these plans were always stalled due to lack of funds or public opposition.

Views over television changed when Unitel, a private Hopelandian company, decided to give the permit to begin operating its services over VHF channel 2, doing so on July 15, 1990, broadcasting six hours a day. In 1991, Unitel bought the still null frequencies of channels 4 and 6, becoming a three-channel network. Unitel also exploited cable and MMDS services in the Botojani capital starting in 1993. The government provided a weekly news program to the Unitel stations.

In September 1994, One Television was founded, beginning its operations in July 1995. The channel was owned by Charles Beno. The channel broke the monopoly, but was also seen as a groundbreaking turning point in the country's young television landscape. Despite airing mostly foreign content, One Television was famous for its news operation (The Independent Newscast) and its political discussion program, Tonight. Another company with foreign capital but this time with a Botojani permit bought the landing rights for VHF frequency 10 and started broadcasting Channel 10 in 1997.

Unitel announced in 2000 that it was going to leave channels 2, 4 and 6 due to government pressure and move entirely to its cable and MMDS services, forcing it to sell its three channels separately. Therefore channel 2 was sold to Alpha Television, Channel 4 to Charles Edmond Tupa and Neave Tupa and Channel 6 directly to the government. Channel 2 took on the name Alpha Television, Channel 4 its frequency and Channel 6 the name TV Botojans. The name was patented in 1989 for a potential government television service at the time Unitel was setting up its channels.

TV Botojans announced a three-month suspension in April 2002, the suspension later became permanent as the government company that handled the channel went bankrupt. The channel changed its owners several times under its off-air interim period and tried to resume on cable without success. Test broadcasts of the current Channel 6 started in 2006 with content supplied by Voice of Hopeland.

Following the election of Damien Tupa, the government's media machine started to increase significantly. Following the buyout of Channel 4 from Unitel, One Television was the target of the next government takeover, this time by the long-respected state broadcaster, the Botojan Broadcasting Corporation, in December 2009. The channel was put under the control of the BBC in January 2010 and was subsequently rebranded BBC Television the following month. With these acts, the Tupas were seen as "the fastest growing economical cartel in the Botojan Islands". Facing these concerns, independent television channels were starting to become more and more unable to compete against the growing influence of the Tupa channels. BBC Television overtook both Alpha and Channel 10 in ratings, becoming the leading channel.

With the BBC getting status quo from Tyler, the "number one son" of Damien, the BBC got the rights to the 2011 Tyntalsyan Cup of Nations held in the Botojan Islands, whereas the BBC was responsible for producing the world feed of the event in association with the TFC.

In June 2011, Smile Television started broadcasting on channel 13, the former frequency of a One Television/BBC Television relayer. In September, Channel 6 resumed formal telecasts under a predominantly educational lineup. The channel being aligned to the Tupas was seen as a key tool in disseminating propaganda of the ruling party. The year ended with Alpha being bought out by Maurice Tupa, becoming the fifth channel under the collective helm. Channel 10 remained the last VHF channel under independent control.

The UHF band started getting populated with channels in the early 2000s, firsly with the Botojani News Channel (channel 23) in 2001 and later with 100% News (channel 15) in 2002. Although the channels were promoted as news channels, some general content was broadcast by these two. BNC was the first home of the music program Dark Side, which, after the takeover of channel 8 by Damien Tupa, moved to BBC Television.

Tyler bought UHF channel 16 in 2012 for the provision of a possible BBC News channel, the plans never came to fruition. The channel aimed to compete against 100% News. A successful Channel 22 license was put forward in 2016.

The Botojan Islands started digital terrestrial broadcasts in November 2017 with BBC Television conducting test broadcasts, with the HD simulcast of BBC that had recently been launched. Development of digital terrestrial television in the country has been sluggish with at least 2% of households picking the service. Channel 6 started digital broadcasts in December 2022 and the other channels of the Tupa family are expected to start by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

In December 2018, BBC staff proceeded to take down 100% News' terrestrial operation. Channel 6 started a side channel, Channel 15, airing exclusively cultural and educational programming made by its parent channel.

Following the re-election of Damien Tupa in November 2021, numerous television channels have been shut down.

Analog terrestrial television is scheduled to switch off in "February or March" 2023, as per a spokesperson as the Telecommunications and Postal Authority (Telpa). Television channels that haven't started digital signals yet say that the move would cause certain channels to limit their coverage to cable and would cause unbalance in the Botojani media landscape (some of the casualties of the Tupa regime were local cable channels). Despite this, the government is promoting digital terrestrial television heavily.

Alpha, Channel 4 and Smile all started their digital broadcasts on the morning of February 11, 2023.

On February 25, 2023, certain analog transmitters experienced unexpected analog shutdowns, with analog terrestrial signal being limited to a few hours a day.

Channel 10 started digital braoadcasts on March 11, 2023.

Overview

The country uses NTSC since the dawn of national television (due to its past with Hopeland) and ISDB-T for digital terrestrial television.

Logo	Name of channel	Date of launch	Owner	HD?	Former names	Broadcasting hours	Other notes
	Alpha Television	July 15, 1990	Alpha Television	No	Unitel 2	06:00-00:00	Unitel channel until 2000
	Channel 4	1991	Radio and Television News, Inc.	No	Unitel 4	06:00-00:00	Unitel channel until 2000
	Channel 6	September 2011 (current incarnation)	Charles Tupa	Yes		06:00-00:00	Unitel channel until 2000, TV Botojans until 2002, silent until 2011
	BBC Television	July 1994	Botojan Broadcasting Corporation (Tyler Tupa)	Yes	One Television (1995-2010)	06:00-00:00	BBC Radio also broadcasts in the multiplex
	Channel 10	1997	Media Services Botojan Islands	No		06:00-00:00
	Smile Television	June 2011	Smile Television	Yes		06:00-00:00

UHF broadcasting is limited to channels in either the capital or other cities and islands. The reach of these channels is limited, the group includes the side channels of the VHF networks operated by the Tupas. These channels are also broadcast over cable.

To obtain a digital terrestrial license, channels must receive a letter of consent from the Botojani government.

In December 2022, DTT penetration jumped to 40%.

The channels on offer at a national scale are:

• 2.1: Channel 2
• 2.2: Channel 2 1seg
• 4.1: Channel 4
• 4.2: Channel 4 1seg
• 6.1: Channel 6
• 6.2: Channel 6 1seg
• 8.1: BBC Television
• 8.2: BBC Radio
• 8.3: BBC Television 1seg
• 10.1: Channel 10
• 10.2: Channel 10 1seg
• 13.1: Smile
• 13.2: Smile 1seg
• 15.1: Channel 15
• 15.1: Channel 15 1seg

The Botojan Islands are the only country in Tyntalsya to use ISDB-T, whereas the push towards the usage of 1seg has been made evident as a push to promote the broadcast of BBC Television "everywhere in the BI", according to a 2018 campaign.