Television
Cambodia launched a test television station, its call sign is XUTV, which began broadcasting in 1966. The station was part of state-owned Radio dffusion Nationale Khmere in 1970, operating 12 to 14 hours daily, with advertising as its primary income. Its studios were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, halting the role of television during the Khmer Rouge era.
In 1983, the government launched another station, TVK, under the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea regime. It began broadcasting in color from 1986. There was only one station until the late 1990s, when private companies began to launch their own stations.
All of these stations have local programming, including serials, variety shows and game shows. Thai soap operas (dubbed in Khmer) were extremely popular, until a backlash following the 2003 Phnom Penh riots, after which Thai programs were banned.
Cable television, including UBC programming from Thailand as well as other satellite networks, is also widely available in Cambodia. Many people in Cambodia do not watch Cambodia-produced television, instead applying for UBC from Thailand to view Thai programs. Cambodians living abroad can watch Khmer television content via Thaicom from Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
Most television networks in Cambodia shut down in the evening. Since 2008, the government have allowed TV channels to close at 12.00 a.m. (midnight) and resume at 6.00 a.m..
Read more about this topic: Media Of Cambodia
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
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“Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)