TBS (Ashtalaia)

TBS is an Ashtalaian commercial television channel owned by WarnerMedia Ashtalaia. The channel will fill the gap left by ATK in early 2004.
The channel made a soft launch on November 22, 2021 at 19:00, alongside CNN Ashtalaia. The channel oficially started at 19:56.
Initially, about a quarter of the TBS Ashtalaia schedule will be local, as the broadcaster is waiting for "all restrictions to be lifted". TBS will have CNN Ashtalaia as its sister channel. TBS runs on a renewed license that used to belong to Cartoon Network's and CNN's, Cartoonito's.
==History==
===Cartoon Network as a terrestrial channel===
In 2009, Turner Broadcasting System Ashtalaia won a license for a digital terrestrial channel, however in order to commence regular broadcasting, an existing channel had to be surrendered. 13 Kanalas was sacrificed and on October 10, 2010, Cartoon Network Ashtalaia started its terrestrial broadcasts. In early 2016, the government, overtaken by a nationalist-populist party, Fire of Freedom, forbade foreign companies from operating 100% of shares of terrestrial channels. Shortly after Fire of Freedom left the government in October 2017, the laws were repealed.
===Historical context of the second commercial channel===
Your TV came to force in 1995, whereas the existing commercial channel ATK lost its dominance after 2000 when Your started a second channel (Your 2), bought a small UHF channel and reconverted to a youth channel (UTV, former United Television Vilvek) and bought the rights to Big Brother after ATK refused to buy the format on the grounds it was considered "trash". A small political discussion about possible forfeitures committed by ATK in early 2004 led to its premature shutdown after almost twelve and a half years on air.
Many companies have issued bids for a second nationwide commercial channel, assuming that many of these bids called Your TV a "monopoly" and also gave undue prominence to the state broadcaster. The former Hayastelari commercial channel NTI (TVI until 2000) was hoping to obtain a license for national broadcasting, but it was rejected after NTI discovered ties to the ATK scandal. NTI continued broadcasting until 2016, when it was debilitated and shut down.
===Rumors===
Rumors began circulating of the launch of a TBS-branded channel in 2018, when WarnerMedia Ashtalaia (the Turner brand was being dropped) started luring potential talents for the channel, however a supposition emerged saying that the channel was going to merely broadcast "hastily-made comedy programming made for cheap entertainment, dubbed in Ashtalaian", claiming that "reality is cheaper". These rumors were debunked in February 2019 as WarnerMedia executives said that the channel (slated to be a cable network) wasn't going to be profitable.
===License===
In May 2021, the Ashtalaian government made public two requests from WarnerMedia to provide terrestrial television services, on channels 5 and 7, and approved them on May 23. TBS was going to run on channel 5 and CNN Ashtalaia on channel 7.
==Programming==
===Entertainment===
===News===
===Turkestani series===
TBS will become the first nationwide Ashtalaian-speaking terrestrial channel to broadcast Turkish series, however the demand is limited in the Hayastelari market. Some people say that airing such shows is a risk as Turkestan is currently immersed in a nationalist regime similar to what Ashtalaia had for over a year in 2016/17.