Oko Broadcasting Corporation: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
m (→Television) |
||
| Line 59: | Line 59: | ||
OBC currently operates 5 national television channels as well as 1 international network. All channels, excluding international, are free-to-air domestically, with the channels being available on all providers. | OBC currently operates 5 national television channels as well as 1 international network. All channels, excluding international, are free-to-air domestically, with the channels being available on all providers. | ||
[[OBC One]] | [[OBC One]] | ||
* OBC | * OBC One is the flagship and primary channel, broadcasting OBC original and licensed content and programming, in addition to news blocks from OBC News. This channel was a founding channel. | ||
[[OBC Two]] | [[OBC Two]] | ||
* | * OBC Two broadcasts less mainstream content and new OBC series and content before potentially airing them on other channels and services. | ||
'''OBC News International''' (''The News, Across The World'') | '''OBC News International''' (''The News, Across The World'') | ||
Revision as of 19:00, 12 May 2024
 | |
| Public broadcaster | |
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Predecessor | OMONN |
| Founded | July 22, 2022 |
Area served |  Makko Oko |
Key people | Melissa Kohler Chair |
| Services | Radio, Television, Online |
| Owner | Government Of Makko Oko |
| Website | obc.co.mk |
Oko Broadcasting Corporation, also known as OBC, is the main Makko Oko public broadcasting company headquartered in Opposh. OBC is a company much like JBS and NBC, however, OBC is the only one under direct government control and supervision. Before OBC, JBS was the closest equivalent to a public broadcaster, with the government being uninvolved in public services when it came to entertainment, including radio, excluding during times of war, when the government would broadcast messages, news and emergencies from the Department of Defense.
History
2019-2022
OBC got its start when the Empire of Makko Oko was originally established, right after the Civil Transition War, when the government saw a need to have a public news reporter for times of war and to report on the important issues. This led to the formation of OMONN, the first public news publication available in the nation. Sometime around 2021 to 2022, the government, being established after a couple of years, and officially recognized as the legitimate government internationally, loosened restrictions on private news enterprises, leading to JBS News and others coming back into the spotlight.
Originally, the government didn't want to sink its costs into state-run programming, other than MKBO, and so OMONN continued to be for news exclusively, with state-authorized private companies handling all the other channels. International channels weren't considered for broadcast very much, and very rarely did they actually end up getting approved by the government.
July 22nd, 2022, is when the government's position on state-run programming changed. With the realization that physical news media such as newspapers were harder to censor and control, and even harder to know what was said on it until after it was already published and distributed, the Industry & Securities Oversight Commission, in coordination with Emperor Conall Solis and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, a national ban on physical news media was instated, and with that, OMONN's official transition into its current state, the OBC.
The ban itself, which killed off most of what OMONN was originally created for, at least partially, which was during a time when the internet infrastructure was poor, not even reaching 34% of the nation's people, caused the government to rethink its original stance on state-run programming, and ended up converting OMONN into the OBC in a mass expansion of state-run mass media.
2023-2024: Rebranding of OBC Television Service & Negative Handling of Protests
On May 16th, 2023, Comptroller Rikke Lassen announced that OBC's television division was getting expanded, with the OkoTV branding being phased out and OBC would become the sole TV brand and corporation name. In addition, news was getting a dedicated channel named OBC News, with OBC 1 and 2 going to be upgraded to broadcast any OBC original content, with limited licensed content from other creators. News would run at 7:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM on the main channels for 30 minutes to an hour. The expansion announcement ended on a high note, with Rikke announcing the establishment of the OBC Documentaries & Historical Works Division, which will be in charge of creating OBC original documentaries and historical content. The first work to be produced will be "The Islands Of Naju", spearheaded by Rikke themselves, a tribal member and person.
When Ashgate started, OBC was the primary reporter and investigative journalist looking into the incidents. Notably, the government had requested OBC to filter all news articles on the poisonings through them for sanitization prior to publishing, however Comptroller Lassen denied this request, citing to the commission later that no law mandated that they do this, nor was there a rule against speaking on health incidents. This would all come to a head for the corporation when they broadcasted Minister of Health Danika Hicks' speech on October 14th, 2023 without checking the topic, getting a copy of the script, etc. Comptroller Lassen in their speech to the commission also stated that "no protocols were needed because Minister Hicks verified their identity as a government official and thus was presumed to be speaking on authorized speech as a cabinet official"
OBC would also broadcast the ensuing protests chanting "Disclose or Abdicate" at the capital and at other urban areas across the empire, angering the government more so. The commission ended up recommending Comptroller Lassen's termination and for laws and regulations to "ensure that the integrity of the empire cannot collapse because of the failure of a sole leader." and he subsequently resigned before he could be terminated on November 7th, 2024, a day after the commission's report was published. He was not replaced until the ratification of the Media Accountability Act of 2025 later that month which established the OBC Board of Governors, overseen by the Monarch directly, and who run the corporation through majority votes, abolishing the position of "Comptroller" altogether, however creating a new position of Chair/Chairperson, which is the person overseeing the board other than the Monarch, and is in themselves a board member.
Early 2024 would see the launch of a new OBC television channel named OBC Legislative, established by the new OBC Board of Governors, and created in partnership with the Ministry of State Affairs to give public access to legislative debates etc. to get public input and voice where it is most needed. That brought the count up to five national television channels from four prior to it. In June 2024, OBC announced that the Broadcasting License fee would be raised from IDH$350 to IDH$410, and they would merge the perpetual license into the general one, for a more seamless experience and simplified management. The fee hike took effect at the end of the year. The board justified the hike through the addition of a new channel and by introducing the first public radio stations during peacetime, those being OBC Radio 1, OBC Radio 2, OBC Radio Sports and OBC Radio Alternative, later renamed OBC Radio 3.
2025-2026: Paid Programming Attempt & Prohibition on Advertising
OBC's Board of Governors heard an unsuccessful motion to make OBC a paid service on April 14th, 2025, charging citizens to be able to subscribe to its channels and making it no longer free-to-air. At the time it had a lot of pushback from the public, citing that the broadcasting license was what made it a "paid service" and therefore making citizens pay additional money to OBC for the privilege would be akin to theft of property and fraud. Since then, there have been calls for the Law Council to make it a mandate of the corporation to be "free to the public, always". A new royal charter was promulgated by the Privy Council later on June 3rd, 2025 which prohibited any charges other than those "allowed by the law" excluding international consumers and also for the first time, prohibited any advertising domestically for OBC broadcasts, streams or any other service they are to provide, which up to this point, had been a major source of revenue for them. OBC unsuccessfully sued the government to have the new charter voided.
After the new charter was ratified, Chair Melissa Kohler announced that the timeshift channel would be merged into OBC One in August 2025 and be renamed OBC One East, with OBC Two becoming a separate, independent channel from OBC One. OBC One would now be the mainstream broadcast channel and OBC Two would broadcast less mainstream and new concepts and ideas before potentially airing them on other OBC channels and services.
Services
Television
OBC currently operates 5 national television channels as well as 1 international network. All channels, excluding international, are free-to-air domestically, with the channels being available on all providers.
- OBC One is the flagship and primary channel, broadcasting OBC original and licensed content and programming, in addition to news blocks from OBC News. This channel was a founding channel.
- OBC Two broadcasts less mainstream content and new OBC series and content before potentially airing them on other channels and services.
OBC News International (The News, Across The World)
- OBC News International is an OBC channel that was created along with OkoTV 1 and 2 with the founding of OBC. The channel in question broadcasts news from Makko Oko to any nation and provider that agrees to carry it, subject to approval by the Makko Okoan Government.
OBC News Makuri (The News, All In Makuri)
- OBC News Makuri is an OBC channel that was launched on July 24th, 2022. The channel in question broadcasts strictly news, but unlike OBC One and Two and OBC News, the flagship channel, OBC News Makuri does it only in the Makuri language. It is a channel exclusive to the nation, and none of the content broadcasted on it is put on OBC News International, with that channel only broadcasting news in English.
OBC News (All The News, Whenever You Need It)
- OBC News is an OBC channel that was launched on May 16th, 2022. The channel broadcasts news and only news, 24/7/365, and only in English.
OBC Legislative (Your 24/7 Source For All Things Legislative)
- OBC Legislative is an OBC channel that launched in early 2024 that broadcasts live Law Council, Commission and Committee debates and hearings 24/7/365
More channels are planned in the near future, with OBC just getting started.
Online
OBC currently operates a single online service available to both local and international visitors.
Oko Online
- Oko Online is OBC's online news publication in the nation, being available to both local and international visitors. Oko Online mainly reports on domestic matters but in major incidents will report on international matters, which in some cases may not be available to international visitors. Oko Online was a founding online service of OBC's.
Radio
OBC currently operates 5 radio stations, with one of them being an international station broadcast both domestically and abroad. All stations are commercial-free, excluding World Service, and broadcast nationally in every area, excluding the Islands in some cases.
OBC Radio 1
OBC Radio 2
OBC Radio Sports
OBC Radio 3
OBC Radio World Service
Former Services
OMONN Newspaper
- OMONN Newspaper was the defacto newspaper service within the nation from the empire's inception in 2019 to July 22nd, 2022, when the OBC was founded.
Programming
News
News programs are integral to OBC's schedule, and make up a considerable portion of its daily output, considering that OBC's predecessor, OMMON, did only news content such as the OMONN Newspaper. News content that's broadcasted on TV channels such as OBC One and Two, have the branding of OBC News, while Oko Online has its own branding, which is just Oko Online.
Exclusive Programs
WorldVision Song Contest
Starting with WV101, the Makko Okoan Government officially declared that OBC, and in part, the Makko Okoan Government, claims and has the exclusive broadcasting rights to the WorldVision program within the nation. In addition, WV101 was the first WorldVision edition to be broadcasted within the nation, largely being ignored otherwise.
Original OBC Productions
| Title | Genre | Content Type | Premiere | Series Finale/Final Season | Title Production Date | Runtime | Airing Status | Title Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controlism: The Only Way To Live | Documentary | Movie | 2025 | Not Applicable | June 10th, 2023 | 1200 min. | Not Permitted To Air | Currently In Pre-Production | Produced for government use only |
| Opposh Cops | Drama & Action | TV Show | 2024 | Not Applicable | August 8, 2023 | 60 min. | Not Airing, In Production | Currently In Pre-Production |
