Timeline of Flarlandian television

Main article: Television in Flarland

1940s

• 1941: The first television tests are conducted by the University of Wembley by using the Televisor program. Programming was seen once a week and consisted of newsreels regarding the war, variety shows using university staff and film serials.
• 1943: The Televisor experiments come to an end. Flarland was already in the war, primarily in order to save the Pakifas and Port Merwin from Oriencian takeover.
• February 1944: The Televisor experiments return due to popular demand among the students and technical engineers.
• 1947: The Flarlandian government considers introducing a television service. The government imposes the same 13-channel VHF frequency assignments as used in Nashland and Saria.
• March 1948: Construction of the first television transmitter is made in Wembley while the government discusses how will television work.
• June 1948: The Flarlandian Broadcasting Corporation and the University of Wembley enter the race.
• August 1948: Parliament in recess. The FBC has Reithian principles that forbid it from carrying advertisements on its upcoming television service while the University of Wembley has a stricter educational quota.
• September 1948: Owing to Sierran influence, the two broadcasters sign a deal to open up to advertisements.
• December 1948: The FBC is assigned to operate on channel 1 in Wembley. The television transmitter and the FBC Television House were not yet finished.
• January 1949: Work on the Wembley television transmitter is finished, but neither broadcaster had proper facilities to operate such a service.
• June 1949: The University of Wembley, led by Radio National engineers and technical help from Pye, build the site for the future Television Facilities. The FBC Television Service received help from the Radio Corporation of Sierra.
• October 1949: The University of Wembley television service is assigned to operate on channel 13.
• December 7, 1949: The FBC is given one year to commence operating its television service. Work on the Whitecastle television transmitter started on the same day.

1950s

• January 13, 1950: Derek Walker is the first director of programming of the upcoming television service of the FBC.
• January 16, 1950: The FBC Television Service conducts a five-minute live test transmission.
• January 20, 1950: The FBC announces plans to build a microwave relay network if the transmitters being deployed are enough to cover the whole country and overcome gaps in transmission.
• February 1, 1950: The FBC is assigned to operate on channel 4 in Whitecastle.
• February 12, 1950: The University of Wembley's television service shows its plans for nationwide expansion.
• March 1950: Throughout every working day of the month, the FBC conducts further test transmissions in Wembley, with an average running length of ten to twenty minutes, including test cards and silent films.
• June 1950: The government considers October to be the official launch date.
• July 4, 1950: The FBC conducts its first outside transmission in honor of Flarland Day. Said broadcast ran for half an hour.
• July 18, 1950: The FBC temporarily suspends its test transmissions in order to give their employees a summer break.
• August 4, 1950: Test transmissions resume on the FBC but with half the staff.
• September 6, 1950: The government pushes forth the launch date of the television service, October 1. The television service was to run over two periods, 5:30pm to 6pm and 7:30pm to 10:30pm on weekdays and 5pm to 11pm on weekends. Adverts were exclusive to the evening slots.
• October 1, 1950: The FBC Television Service commences operations on the Wembley transmitter. On the same day, the FBC premieres Panorama: The Televised Newsreel of Flarland.
• December 13, 1950: FBC Television starts operating in Whitecastle as a separate service at first.
• February 6, 1951: FBC Television starts broadcasting in Cromartie, Berkshire, on channel 2.
• February 12, 1951: The three existing stations are connected by microwave.
• September 1, 1951: University of Wembley Television commences operation. The regular schedule ran from 7 to 9 every evening. Broadcasts started with a televised adaptation of the "encyclopedia" series Listen and Learn, called Watch and Learn.
• 1952: Taking cues from Sierran television, the FBC divides Panorama into two programs: the Television Newsreel (on air until 1955) and Panorama, a hosted news program.
• August 8, 1952: The FBC Television service premieres the premiere episode of Sierran series I Love Lucy, "The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub". The director of programming reportedly said "the sweet smell of success" before loading the reel of the episode onto the playout equipment. Eventually the series became Flarland's most-popular television program, to an extent where a high number of children born in the mid-50s were known as either "Lucy" or "Lucile".
• 1953: Lucile Ball visits Flarland.
• September 1, 1954: In honor of UW Television's anniversary, the channel screens its first commercial break at 19:54. The advertisements were all for the Flarlandian Press Association, Joy More Toys and the Bank of Wembley.
• October 6, 1957: IBC starts television operations in Wembley. The first advertisement seen on the channel was for Gibbs SR toothpaste, ending with a special message saying "Gibbs SR wishes IBC good luck in the years to come". It was reported that the company also gave supplies of the toothpaste for actors, announcers, newsreaders and presenters working at the new channel.
• October 9, 1957: IBC North West begins operations. As microwave links between it and Wembley weren't established, the station had to fend for itself. The reason why the North West region used IBC branding was due to the fact that, upon its founding in 1932, it was intended to serve the Wembley-Podsworth rail line.
• November 16, 1957: IBC expands to Whitecastle, the provider is Northern Television.

1960s

• September 1962: Channel 13 airs the first episode of The People of the Valley, Flarland's longest running soap.
• November 1963: Roger Moore is in Flarland during the filming of an episode of The Saint involving a kidnapping, the actor is met with massive enthusiasm by the fan base. Taking advantage of the situation, the FBC signs a new deal with ITC, the producer of the series, and said that they wanted to open up for co-operation between the two.
• 1964: Cop Out premieres on FBC 1.
• 1966: Cop Out is the first Flarlandian show sold to South Bulungi, on the television service of the SBBC.
• September 1967: The Flarlandian government ratifies the PAL format for the then-upcoming color television system.

1970s

• November 1, 1973: The Save Energy 73 measures are put to place, putting a 22:30 closedown limit to all television channels. Exceptions were being made for December 15-18 (23:00), 24 and 25 (00:00) and December 31 (01:00).
• July 21, 1978: Last broadcast of FBC 2 in the old format.
• July 22, 1978: Start of a stop-gap measure provided by the FBC to broadcast experimental programs over the FBC 2 network, presented simply as "FBC Television" and with rules implying that the service wouldn't exceed sixty minutes in length.
• October 16, 1978: The "new" FBC 2 starts operation, with three hours of programming on weekdays (starting at 8pm) and five on weekends (starting at 6pm). Newsnight premieres. The FBC wants to emulate NBS 2.
• October 17, 1978: FBC 2 premieres I, Claudius after Newsnight.
• April 1979: Difficulties at the set of The Rover lead to a minor strike that nearly blanked out the IBC network.
• July 1979: IBC staffers and presenters, not satisfied with their current conditions, demand a payrise, or else they would plunge the network into a real strike, after a "false strike" in April.
• August 10, 1979: IBC enters a reduced service, in readiness for a temporary shutdown of its network on Sunday.
• August 12, 1979: IBC shuts down its network as a consequence of the strike.
• August 15, 1979: A compromise is reached for IBC to resume operations on an extremely reduced scale. According to legislation, IBC is only allowed to deliver a daily, fifteen-minute news bulletin, often read by, in the words of the director-general, "whoever had the will to read the news". At the end of the newscast, the channel had to "close down" by playing the national anthem, followed by the "blue screens" telling the viewers about the strike's situation. The first newscast under such circumstances was delivered on August 16.

1980s

• October 1, 1983: The Satellite channel launches.
• May 5, 1984: The Eurectivision Song Contest is held in Flarland.
• 1989: Club X, Khyber Waterman's television debut, premieres on Channel Ten.

1990s

• July 1, 1991: Flarland Television International begins regular operations to experimental cable networks in Vydoria a d over the air in the Henleys and Eumoritown.
• October 1991: FBC Network One premieres The Simpsons. It was shown on Thursday nights. In subsequente years it moved to FBC 3, whereas FBC 3 had reruns and FBC 1 still had premieres for a while longer.
• January 2, 1995: FBC Network Two changes its output. Some of its content moved to Network One and Network Three, saying that "the inclusion of high-profile sporting events, as well as competitive programming was a mistake", and that Network One was competing against Network Two.
• January 12, 1995: The FBC revokes its contract with the Sentry Broadcasting Corporation, first signed in 1990, after accusations that SBC was manipulating news reports about the Flarlandian legislative elections.
• February 20, 1995: For the thirtieth anniversary of Channel Ten, and after achieving maximum terrestrial coverage, a new schedule is put to place, giving high priorities to news and movies. At the time, imported programming was "highly competitive".
• March 24, 1995: IBC airs the last edition of the first season of Stars in Their Eyes.
• September 3, 1995: FBC Network One broadcasts the alien autopsy video as part of a live debate during primetime, five days after the FOX network of the United States got the footage. The debate is preceded by Four TSN's The Roswell Incident documentary. The debate includes the titular Alien Autopsy video. About 20 million people tuned in.
• September 1995: Bright and Breezy is shown for the last time on Channel 14.
• October 30, 1995: The FBC announces that it will drop the "Network" moniker from its television channels. Under the terms, the FBC would revert the names of its television channels.
• April 15, 1996: Network Three becomes the first of the three terrestrial channels to rebrand, this time to FBC 3. Much of its music programming is downsized considerably and was now oficially promoted as a youth and entertainment channel.
• April 22, 1996: Network Two is renamed FBC 2, still considered the home for cultural, highbrow and "educational" programming.
• April 29, 1996: The rebrand is finished as Network One is renamed FBC 1. Most of the programs made throughout the coming months were critically hated, despite two high-profile dramas premiering this year.
• 1998: In an unexpected coup, IBC buys Teletubbies, defeating the FBC's bid. The series was shown at 9am as part of a new, yet short-lived programming block for preschoolers, The Little Ones. Eventually Teletubbies outlived the block itself.
• June 1, 1998: BEdigital launches as a subscription digital terrestrial platform operated by IBC's telecommunications division.
• December 27, 1999: Live at Nine, Channel Ten's newscast, moves to 7pm. The change was criticized by many due to the fact that they didn't change the name.
• December 31, 1999: The FBC, UWB and IBC all partake in the Nashlandian-backed 2000 Today network, with FBC 1, Channel 13 and Flarland Television International airing a shared live broadcast of the fireworks from Wembley, to a wider international audience.

2000s

• June 29, 2000: IBC Gold, the first of the two licenses given over for the free section of BEdigital, begins operating under must-carry status.
• June 30, 2000: The first (and only) terrorist attack by the Freedom Fighters disrupts the flow of television for two days.
• September 3, 2000: Under Keithwest, Channel Ten rebrands (to the same logo used by the Northulian channel) and premieres the first reality show in Flarland, Big Brother.
• January 8, 2001: The IBC News channel launches in place of the Wembley News Channel, which IBC had acquired months into its existence. It is a free-to-view channel on BEdigital and has two main competitors.
• April 23, 2001: IBC launches the second license (as awarded before the acquisition of WNC), a channel for the 15-34 demographic known as Grimy Factory. The channel stayed on air for nine years and shut down due to the deterioration of its contents.
• September 3, 2001: Family Affairs moves to a new slot, 8pm. It is followed by the premiere of the second season of Big Brother.
• September 11, 2001: At 12:53, FBC Television interrupts regular programming for a simulcast carried by FBC 1, 2, 3 and the FBC News channel. When an airplane crashed on one of the now-defunct New Yale Twin Towers, Richard Graham started by saying "The Third World War has begun", prompting widespread panic. Other channels followed within the coming minutes. Many Flarlandians thought that this would have negative implications on Flarlandian soil, with attempts of a Freedom Fighters sequel on the horizon. In the years that followed, Richard Graham was unaware that the effects of the non-existent "war" were still ingrained in the Flarlandian society. Most channels cancelled and/or postponed programming. KZDC was shown without studio segments. Toony Franza was not broadcast.
• September 12, 2001: Channel Thirteen airs two episodes of The People of the Valley, the episode that was scheduled for the previous day that was pre-empted for rolling news coverage, and the day's episode. The hour alone generated unprecedentedly high viewing figures (about 44.8 million) compared to 41.3 million for the combined news reports shown that day.
• October 6, 2001: Channel Ten premieres the only edition (to date) of Survivor Flarland, in the Port Merwinian island of Rakaere. The island was selected because of Flarland's control over it without any autonomous government in the territory. Earlier on in the year, executives suggested it to be in a secluded area of Lower Pakifa Island, but the Pakifan government was against the decision.
• January 29, 2002: The FBC rebrands all of its television channels.
• January 29, 2002: CFBC is split into separate channels for separate demographics. FBC Junior for under-6s and CFBC for the 6-14 demographic.
• September 30, 2002: In an effort to compete with the powerful K-Zone Direct Connection, CFBC returns to FBC 1 under a separate program from CFBC, Boys and Girls Network (BGN). The program was made to take advantage on the loss of KZDC's prime competitor Toony Franza, whose last broadcast in the spring of 2002 led to it being finished under mysterious circumstances. Featuring a mix of Flarlandian and imported content, it didn't work and got cancelled in January 2003. Its slot moved to FBC 3.
• January 12, 2006: Grimy Factory holds the Flarlandian terrestrial premiere of Family Guy, starting with its first season from 1999. They lost the rights to the series (the first four seasons) in 2009. The FBC regained its terrestrial rights but from the first post-hiatus episode in 2011.

2010s

• February 1, 2011: Channel One stops broadcasting and its owner returns to Hopeland.
• June 30, 2011: The Wembley region is the last in all of Flarland to end analog terrestrial transmissions, after over 60 years.
• April 2013: Khyber: The Animated Series is broadcast for the first time on FBC 3.
• October 13, 2013: FBC 3 premieres its new flagship comedy sketch show, The Tranglers. The series was met with massive criticism due to the poor quality of the scripts, forced jokes and incomprehensible censorship. Thirteen episodes were initially ordered but the FBC, unable to cope with the criticism, decided to cut filming to seven episodes and cancel it. One episode featured a sex education sketch involving a dildo that was heavily criticized by highly conservative sectors of the Flarlandian society.
• October 1, 2013: Streets TV begins operation on Freeview channel 81 in the Greater Wembley Area. Without must-carry laws it was unable to achieve 0.1% viewing figures within its viewing area.
• November 27, 2013: It is announced that Channel A will cease its operations in the following week due to misunderstandings between the channel's license and that of Streets TV.
• December 3, 2013: Channel A ceases operating on cable and satellite operators.
• December 3, 2013: Flarlandian terrestrial channels cease terrestrial and subscription coverage in Ashtalaia. This prompted a television war between the two countries, who thought that Ashtalaian television was starting to become "increasingly populist" and thought that Flarlandian television was better. This minor incident would later spark a political crisis between the two countries, forcing Ashtalaia to have an anti-Flarlandian president and a populist prime-minister for a year, until a coup was made in October 2017.
• December 31, 2013: Channel A shuts down its terrestrial broadcasts.
• June 2014: A successful petition in Ashtalaia, having surpassed its goal of 100.000 signatures (surpassing 1.4 million total), is sent to its government to re-establish the broadcasts of Flarlandian television there.
• September 2015: In its upfront, the FBC announces that it will start showing Bollywood movies on Saturday nights, after picking up titles from the Eros catalog. The decision drew much controversy, especially since these films are not of value to the vast majority of the Flarlandian population.
• November 20, 2017: Both FBC 1 and FBC NC interrupted their programming out of nowhere for a mock emergency broadcast. The broadcast said that the Flarlandian government was evacuating all Flarlandians within the course of the next twenty-four hours due to an attack from the Ashtalaians. However, it was later revealed that it was a hoax, even with Ashtalaia re-establishing diplomatical relations with Flarland. The supposed broadcast triggered a mass reaction from the Flarlandian internet community, believing it to be real. A few hours later, it was revealed that the hoax was planned by an anti-Flarlandian activist who invaded the infrastructure of the FBC.
• November 24, 2017: A new emergency broadcast interrupted most FBC channels: this time it was about an infection at the FBC. After two minutes, the supposed broadcast changed to a shot of the FBC Television control room where a discussion was heard, where it was later revealed that it was a new hoax, as the discussion suggested. This time it was made by a Flarlandian prankster who had his internet channels blocked, and was supposed to have an interview on an FBC Television program, but was pulled due to the scam.
• March 15, 2019: The FBC cancels The World Keeps Turning on the day two deadly shootings in Canterbury and Kotaro took place, the program at the time of cancellation was accused of broadcasting messages linked to the far-right, as well as promoting violence and "glorifying" the attacks. The show had been limited to Friday nights for a couple of years now due to budget constraints. Initially the format was standard, but starting in 2015, it went "toxic" to the point that it became "unwatchable" for former viewers. The FBC replaced that evening's edition with a debate about violent content.

2020s

• March 13, 2020: Flarland bans studio audiences from television programs. Subsequent postponings and cancellations have led to the FBC administration comparing the pandemic to "a deadly war".
• June 12, 2020: All NEXT channels are suspended for a period of nearly three weeks, due to the assassination of a Hayastelari man in Belmont in late May, and the subsequent protests from Neo-Harchakoborian protests led by pro-Ashtalaic activists. The network went off-air at 20:30 with a network-wide announcement, saying that they had "two weeks" to reconsider reopening. NEXT's channels were self-blocked and replaced by a black screen "until further notice", while its EPG was replaced by "Temporary Closure". At 20:32 the network's website was hacked simply saying "THAKS GO HOME".
• June 29, 2020: At 20:00, all of NEXT's channels resumed operations simulcasting a two-hour program, "What Are We Doing?", where the channel was able to provide a live debate about the situation, including the debate regarding the word "thak".
• June 30, 2020: NEXT's main channel airs four episodes of Acrylic Dreams by special arrangement with Couch Slave Entertainment without any censorship over the word "thak". It is believed that the word gained a negative connotation after 2013, and escalated after government blocades in 2015-2016, following the election of Parker Scott in Flarland and a populist, anti-Flarlandian president in Ashtalaia (who was ousted in a coup in 2017).
• September 8, 2020: In response to the FBC's continued labelling of the pandemic as pertaining to the "Kaizhungese virus", more specifically its "Eurectipherian strain", and calls for Flarland to cease recognizing the PRK in Kaijing in favor of the ROK in Xiaobei, the Kaizhungese government bans the website of the Flarlandian Broadcasting Corporation for the second time, having been banned previously between June and September 2008 due to critical coverage of the Olympics.
• September 11, 2020: A typo on an IBC report of the 19th anniversary of the September 11th attacks goes viral, saying that the tragedy happened in 2011.
• December 31, 2020: Lapietink, a cable company in the Vydorian territory of Jeznogoria, is set to switch off the Flarlandian terrestrial networks from its offer, as the contract wasn't renewed. The announcement was first made in August 2017 leading to massive backlash from the viewers and the company. It is believed that the decision will be considered "irreversible".
• January 11, 2021: Lapietink shut down the relays of Flarlandian channels.