Television in Uzbekistan
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Television in Uzbekistan was first introduced in 1956 when the Uzbek SSR was part of the Soviet Union. The first national television channel was Oʻzbekiston, which was introduced during beginning transmission of Uzbekistan. Colour television was also introduced in the 1970s. At the time, Oʻzbekiston was the only TV channel, and it broadcast several times per day. Uzbekistan's first private television channel, STV, started broadcasting on 15 May 1991.
In 2005, some 30 to 40 independent television stations were in operation. However, four state-owned television stations, run by the Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan, dominated the market. No live programming is allowed.
Television broadcasting in the Uzbek SSR began on 5 November 1956. Coinciding with its creation was the building of a hardware-studio complex,[1] which had one television studio and one mock-up studio.[2] By 1964, television had been introduced to Karakalpakstan.[3]
With the independence of Uzbekistan, the National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan (NTRC) was created.[4] It operated three channels, UzTV-1, UzTV-2 (with programs from the Toshkent studio) and UzTV-3 (which was divided between ORT relays and Omad).[5] The first private TV station, STV, began broadcasting in Samarkand on 15 May 1991, months before independence.[6] Around 1994–95, the station gained the rights to air TV-6 Moscow.[7] In 1998, UzTV-2 was reformatted as Yoshlar[8] and the Toshkent studio moved to UzTV-4, later TTV and now Toshkent.
In 2004, several independent TV stations created NTT, the Network of Independent Television Companies.[9] This was followed by TV Markaz, SofTS and Forum TV, all of them with links to Gulnara Karimova.
Uzbekistan became the first country in the CIS to launch a terrestrial HD channel, UzHD, in late 2011.[10] On 21 October 2013, NTT, Forum TV, TV Markaz and SofTS all shut down their operations due to an apparent "witch hunt" against Gulnara Karimova and her Terra Group.[11][12]
