History of Waisnorian television
1991 - 2000: Waisnorian Television and many others
First transmissions of a television studio which called itself Waisnorian Television were carried out on 24th of November, 1990 only for couple of hours. Irregular transmissions continued for another three months, for about 3-4 hours. WT positioned itself as the freest media in the country, covering events and phenomena that were not shown on Central Television. Also, talk shows on serious and sensitive topics and advertising appeared on the air. Over the next months, WT gradually increased its broadcasting capacity and expanded its program schedule. As well as on Central Television, the main newscast began to air at 21:00, simply called "News at 21:00". Evgeny Osokin became the first host of this program.
On June 7, 1991, Waisnor became an independent state. Central Television gave their TV studios to Waisnorian Television, and old ones were sold. Evgeny Kosyakin became the first head of WT during the independence years. He also undertook various reforms in the field of television and programming. In 1992, the main analytical program of the decade, "Time to Think," was created, in which one could hear sometimes rather harsh criticism of the government's actions, and in 1993, screenings of foreign films and TV series began.
WT also began to show the debate and the results of the presidential and legislative elections. Their coverage was modeled from American Election Night (for presidential elections) and from British general elections results night (for legislative).
Advertising was a very important part of television in the 90s as it took up quite a big chunck of the airtime. In 1997, a law was passed limiting the length of advertisements to a maximum of 10 minutes per hour. Due to the mediocre economic situation in the country, many directors, producers and screenwriters have worked in creating advertisements.
WT certainly wasn't the only TV channel in Waisnor. 90's became a golden age for independent broadcasters, since everyone could open a TV channel. Each district center had its own regional TV channel, and they were usually of very low quality. On such channels, advertising could run for 15-20 minutes in a row, and Western-made serials and films were often shown without translation or it was monophonic. Interestingly, Twin Peaks was very popular at these stations. There were cases when this series was shown simultaneously on 2 or 3 stations. Twin Peaks was shown on First National properly only in 2016. By the end of the 90s, such broadcasting went into decline, many amateur TV channels went bankrupt and stopped broadcasting, some (for example, Niva, broadcasting from Lida) were able to survive. In 1999, various regional channels merged into one, "Tvoy" ("Yours"), which broadcasts to this day.
Waisnorian Television came to the turn of the millennium in a crisis state, there were practically no programs of its own production in the grid (except for news and talk shows), the equipment was outdated, and there were economic problems. In this regard, a decision was made on a radical reform, WT was to be abolished and Waisnorian Broadcasting Corporation should have appeared in his place. This happened on February 1st, 2000.
2000 - 2011: The emergence of main channels and the time of uncertainty
First National Channel became the main TV channel of Waisnor and quickly started to reform their finances to escape WT faith. Part of the funding has been established from the budget, but most of the WBC's revenue comes from commerce. Also, President Maxim Pavlov promised that he and the government would not interfere with work of the WBC. Both of these principles continue today.
One of the first TV series shown on WBC was "X-Files". It was one of the first serials, for the screening and translation of which serious work was carried out, for example, polyphonic dubbing was used. Also, 2000 was the year of the appearance of the first odious election campaigns. Such campaign was carried out by the Waisnor Defense Party, which campaigned for the return of the conscription, which was canceled in 1997. Their campaign was almost straightforward: "If you haven't served in the army, you're gay." Despite massive outroars, WDefP still participated in legislative elections and won 1 seat, although by the next elections, the party ceased to exist.
2001 was the beginning of the popularity of telenovelas in Waisnor - "Simplemente Maria" and "Muñeca Brava" became the most popular TV series in the country and gathered hundreds of thousands of viewers to the screens. The WBC will begin producing its soap operas in 2004, the first will be the series "Life As It Is". 2001 also became the year when First National started broadcasting around the clock.
In 2001, after the crisis on the Russian NTV channel, Vadim Takmenev and Irina Zaitseva emigrated to Waisnor, where they created the New Television channel. In 2003, the name was officially shortened to NTV. Thus, the first serious competitor of the First National for ratings appeared. NTV quickly opposed itself to the First National TV, criticism of the government was heard much more often on this air. However, the WBC also expressed more criticism of the government as the "Riot 00s" began, a time when political and cultural turmoil began.
June 12, 2003 was the day Russian became Waisnor's second official language, and First National and NTV were required to create Russian and Belarusian versions of their channels' broadcasting. For other channels, it was left as a choice. Also, 2003 became the year of the first high-profile scandal on the air - at the New Year's concert on December 31, the group "Na-te!" performed with the song of the group "Kar-Men" "V Bagdade vse spokoyno" (translates as "Everything is calm in Baghdad"). During the performance, people dressed as American and Iraqi soldiers were dancing in the background, but the highlight of the program was later: at the very end of the performance, people in the roles of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein kissed passionately.
In 2004, the country's main news channel, Waisnor 24, appeared. From that moment on, TV channels began to be established by people who had sufficient resources for this. For example, in 2005, the country's first music channel "Music.tv" was also created with a similar scheme.
June 26, 2005 became "Black Sunday" as fascist forces of the "Union of Saviors of the Country" tried to take over power in the country. In 1 day of it 174 people were killed. Live coverage of it was transmitted by First National. It was the first time in Waisnorian history when deaths were filmed live.
In 2006, presidential elections were held, in which Vladislav Esipov ran for a second term. During the debates, which were broadcast live on the First National, a spectator, whose name was Ildar Voronshchikov, jumped out of the hall, who began to blame Esipov for the current plight of the country. In response, Vladislav invited Ildar to debate with him personally, and Voronshchikov accepted the offer. After 10 minutes of tense conversation, Voronshchikov admitted defeat and left the hall. Such an act significantly affected the ratings of both Esipov and the debates. As a result, Vladislav was re-elected for a second term, and the television debates became much more interesting and heated.
Also in 2006, Waisnorian movie "Big and Confusing Game" won an Oscar in Best Film in a Foreign Language. This event noticeably increased interest in Waisnorian cinema, and cinema in general. And this influenced that WBC decided to create its second channel for cinematics. Second Cinema Channel started airing on March 1st, 2007. Thus, in the 00s, three TV channels appeared, which will determine the landscape of Waisnorian television in 2010's.
2007 also became the swan song of soap operas in Waisnor. In one episode of the series "Suburbanites" on NTV one of the villains did basically equivalent of Linkthis. Many viewers called this episode "the pinnacle of pointless drama", and it was the final nail in the coffin of the popularity of soap operas in Waisnor. "Suburbanites" ended a year later. As for foreign TV series, then three main channels finally began to show popular current airing TV series, such as "Lost", "CSI" and "Breaking Bad".
On March 1st, 2008, T4 began operating with initially making itself to be a sci-fi/fantasy directed channel with offerings such as Star Trek and Supernatural. After several years, they also began showing programming from non-USA-and-Japan countries, like Spain, China, South Korea and Germany.
In 2008, the most high-profile political campaign against the Democratic Party was launched on television. The opposition, united in a single coalition after the 2007 "Coffee Agreement", vilified the Democrats and blamed them for all the country's troubles. This campaign was a great success - the Democrats, after 82 seats in 2004, won only 14 in 2008, and the majority of the seats were taken by the Social Democrats, former communists.
On May 9, 2009 at the First National the first episode of the series "The Great Leader and Teacher", which tells about the life of Waisnor under Stalin after the Second World War, was shown. This series began the so-called "Golden Age of Waisnorian TV", since it became the first Waisnorian series made on the world-class level. The series was also noticeably bolder than others - the topics of anti-Semitism, Stalin's personality cult and repression were raised. This series was initially at the center of various scandals, the main one of which occurred in 2010 after the release of an episode in which a KGB agent tried to rape one of the main characters. The deputy from Social-Democratic Party of Waisnor, then the largest in parliament, called it "blatant demonization of the USSR."
2011 - now: Time of fun, scandals and WTF-moments
"Riot 00's" ended in Waisnor on February 14th, 2010 when Waisnor was transformed into semi-presidential republic, but "Fun 2010's" started more than a year later, on April 23rd, 2011, when "Generator Rex" began to be shown on the Second Cinema Channel. Even Waisnorians can't say certainly, why this show was loved so much, but the fact remains - throughout the show, it was one of the most, if not the most popular series at the time. As a result, crossover with Ben 10, "Heroes United", became the most watched broadcast of Fall 2011. In August 2011, the First National began to show "Doctor Who", which quickly became one of the most popular TV shows in Waisnor.
2011 also saw another election scandal - on NTV program "Investigation" company of opposition coalition in 2008 legislative elections was examined. As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that some parts of the opposition's election campaign were lies. After this, the ratings of the social democrats have noticeably decreased. In February 2012, controversy of this elections continued - during the presidential debates, incumbent President Anatoly Antipenko and Social Democratic candidate Anton Mitnik began to argue on the air, which quickly turned into a squabble and almost insults. However, this did not affect Antipenko's ratings, and he was able to be re-elected for a second term.
From 17th to 23rd of April, 2012 there was a "Battle of the Third Seasons" between "Generator Rex" and "Doctor Who" 3rd season episodes. Second Cinema executives decided to air last 6 episodes of "Generator Rex" in one week, and First National answered by airing "Doctor Who" episodes at this same days, but not the same time. For most of the time "Doctor Who" was leading, but closer to the end "Generator Rex" managed to take the lead in ratings. Also on Second Cinema Channel "Hour of Troubles with Head" appeared, where hosts of the shows and guests were just doing some strange things and having fun) This show still airs to this day.
On the 20th of July, 2012, shortly before 2012 London Olympics, Third Sports Channel was launched by WBC, becoming the main sports-based channel in Waisnor.
In 2010's most of Waisnorian series adopted Japanese system of openings and endings: they have 1 opening and 2 endings for a season. Such songs can be a starting grounds for new artists.
2013 in Waisnor was the year of miniseries, the main of which was "Kalinovsky", filmed for the 150th anniversary of the Third Uprising for Independence. Each episode of this miniseries had high ratings, and the final episode set the record as the most watched episode of the series in the history of Waisnorian television. Also in 2013, an adaptation of Fathers and Sons was made, with Sergei Morozenko as Bazarov.
In 2013, the main commentator scandal also happened - in the relay of one of the stages of the Biathlon World Championships, the Waisnorian team performed especially badly. And after another unsuccessful shooting, commentator Denis Chudoyakov could not stand it and began to swear and insult the shooter. After that, Denis was fined and suspended from commenting for a year.
In 2013, NTV debuted "Star Secrets", a satire about tabloids. For the first time, a satire on topical phenomena appeared on Waisnorian television. The biggest scandal of 2014 on Waisnorian television is connected with "Star Secrets" - in one of the episodes, the main characters visit a strip bar, with the episode featuring erotic imagery and behaviour of main character which some viewers considered to be sexist.
Also in 2014, the concept of a "night block" was officially formalized on television, during which films, TV series or music videos with questionable content were shown. Several Adult Swim series was shown during this time on Second Cinema Channel, such as "Rick and Morty" and "The Venture Bros."
On 5th of March, 2016 on Second Cinema "Political Advertising Block" debuted on Second Cinema Channel. For the first time, a political satire appeared on the channel of the country's main television company, which quite often made jabs towards the authorities. At the same day, "Great Leader and Teacher" ended on First National, thus ending first part of "Fun 10's".
In 2017, "Great Leader and Teacher", "Star Secrets" and "Political Advertising Block" were sold to Netflix, thus "Big Three of Waisnorian TV Series" was born. Waisnorian TV series also went on import to the countries of Eastern Europe, Germany, Great Britain, Carrelie.
In 2018, two rather serious projects appeared - the mini-series "1918", timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of independence of Waisnorian People's Republic, and "Shield", first Waisnorian superhero show and first animated series to be produced on high level. Also, "Shield" became the first Waisnorian series to be shown in Japan.
2019 can be called the year of scandals in Waisnorian television: WBC threatened to stop showing "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency" due to one of the main heroes being a Nazi, and, as a result, moving it to the "night block" after massive outroar, many complaints we're made after "Shield" episode "Enduring pain", in which main hero was basically tortured, and 3rd season of "Young Justice" being moved to "night block".
The main scandal of 2020 on TV was the discussion of BLM movement on talk-show "Debriefing". The dialogue was attended by two warring parties, which soon during the broadcast began to openly insult each other, calling each other "racists", "snowflakes" or simply "scum".
Also 2020 and 2021 saw first TV shows that were imported from other NationStates countries - "El Profeto" from Achaean Republic, "I an Nahzal" and "Nation in Danger" from North Alezia (now Alezian Union). Waisnorian shows were also bought by other countries in the Multiverse - "Political Advertising Block" is shown in Alezian Union, "Shield" in Achaean Republic and Carrelie.
After Zafizamarrah Accords were signed and WMCA Alliance was founded, Waisnorian authorities began pushing the idea of "Waisnorian Wave", which, akin to Korean one, would push Waisnorian production worldwide and serve as soft power. Waisnorian TV producers began focusing their attentions on world stage, promoting their TV shows in different countries, reaching great results in Eastern and South Europe and South-East Asia with Australia.
2021-2022 would also mark first Waisnorian streaming services created with WBCi started by WBC and Bringe established in a partnership between NTV and T4. WBCi initially had the upper hand with shows like "Invincible" and "Squid Game", but Bringe would soon catch up with more original shows. First notable shows from streaming services are "oneshot" from WBCi and "Grodno-Haufenburg" from Bringe made in collaboration with Carrelie.
In 2023, "Contract" would be produced by First National Channel and immediately got recognition thanks to the thoughtful depiction of Waisnorian army during Russian invasion of Ukraine and Fatimanian Crisis of 2022. This was also noticeable abroad, getting a spot on Netflix and winning award for the Best Drama on 2nd IBA Awards, becoming first Waisnorian TV show to receive an international award. Also, on Second Cinema, "Codename:Storm" began, being an adaptation of a Galaxy Comics title and named "successor of Shield".
In 2024, Netflix premiered first Waisnorian TV show made on this platform, "Lansky", describing the story of Meyer Lansky and made in collaboration with American studios.