Flarlandian television in Ashtalaia

For decades and until 2013, the reception of television channels from Flarland was widespread across Ashtalaia. The Flarlandian television industry influenced that of Ashtalaia, particularly in the second half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s. However, due to a government revision, these channels had to be forcibly removed from all operators on December 3, 2013, thus disabling legal access to these services.
==History==
Many years before cable television arrived to Ashtalaia, cross-country television signals were common in the border areas of Ashtalaia. At the time, the prominent television channels were from Flarland, Vydoria, Omdalia and Jaheria as well as the Pilva transmitter in Jeznogoria.
The signals that attracted the most were the Flarlandian television signals. At the time, Ashtaia was in the middle of a repressive dictatorship. Television was introduced to the city of Vilvek in 1952 and by the end of the decade was pretty much received nationwide. However, unlike Flarland, fewer people owned television sets, especially outside of the cities of Vilvek and Amaran, due to economical shortcomings. Most television sets sold in Ashtalaia were manufactured in the country itself, unlike Flarland who, despite having local manufacturers, did have aid from foreign companies to help sustain the growing industry and demand for television.
Flarlandian television during the years of the dictatorship in Ashtalaia was known for its higher standards of programming, despite the initial heavy reliance on imports. Shows like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver and The Honeymooners - the quintessential Sierran comedies - became staples of border viewing and Ashtalaian newspapers added Flarlandian listings to regular columns in the western fringes of the country. This infuriated some government officials, as they believed that these shows would have a negative influence on Ashtalaians. Nevertheless ART bought some of these series, including ones made in Flarland, and removed culturally offensive content and dubbed it to Ashtalaian. ART officials promoted I Love Lucy in 1961 as a "border success", however ART decided to detain the creative in order to avoid a massive exodus to the western fringe. Many shows arrived to Ashtalaia with a delay of up to ten years, and most of these already ceased production.
Ashtalaian dissidents in the 60s said that, if Ashtalaia became a democracy, then television would be at the same level of Flarland. This didn't turn out to be true when the Insurgence broke out in April 1974 and ended the dictatorship. However Ashtalaia entered a "puppet democracy" with a lack of plans to repeal the television monopoly. Color television had arrived, and at the same time, the need of increasing signals further eastward began to show, as microwave links amplified signals of Flarlandian channels even further - particularly FBC 1. This was later boosted by satellite delivery, when the four national channels of the time were finally put on a test satellite in 1982. In the late 80s, UHF transmitters and cable networks were already carrying at least one Flarlandian channel - in terrestrial networks by illegal means.
Cable and later satellite have made the expansion of these signals to a national scale possible. This led to Flarlandian channels having an unprecedentedly high amount of viewers, even exceeding the Ashtalaian channels. It is believed that these channels helped improve English proficiency among Ashtalaians. In 2007, these channels were made avialable on digital terrestrial television.
On December 3, 2013, the government banned all Flarlandian television channels due to "rights issues", but others believe that this was an inside job related to the earlier shutdown of ATK and the media purge that had occurred before. The ban was announced on November 27, and was going to affect the following television channels from 08:55 on the morning of the aforementioned day:
*FBC 1
*FBC 2
*FBC 3
*IBC
*Channel Ten
*Channel Thirteen
*Channel 14
*Channel 15
*FBC News Channel
*CFBC
*FBC Junior
*FBC Encore
*FBC Knowledge
*FBC Arts
*She
*Sit
*IBC News Channel
*Ten News Channel
*Thirteen News Channel
*K-Zone
*K-Junior
*Channel A
All of the channels in the list above had "content that violated the Ashtalaian media and telecommunication laws".
===Aftermath===
In the days leading up do December 3, millions demanded the operators to continue broadcasts of those channels past the date, flooding the mails of several telecommunications companies and the operator of the terrestrial platform. By the evening of December 2, PIKO, the state-run telecommunications company, has received an estimated 12,000 e-mails about the removal of the Flarlandian channels.
On the day of the removal (December 3), limited numbers of people took to the streets and stores of telecommunications operators demanding the restoring of the channels. What little they knew was that the channels had low ratings, and had other legal issues that "even a lawyer can't understand".
Viewers felt discriminated regarding the loss of Flarlandian television channels, and the only alternative offered by Voice of Flarland was considered to be "inferior to what the removed channels had on offer".
Flarlandian expats complained about the decisions taken by the government and considered the Ashtalaian channels "garbage". Others suggested that it was the first step towards the "systemic removal of the English language from Ashtalaia", creating an anti-Flarlandian sentiment.
In the years that followed, Ashtalaia elected a populist president, Gyruba Konona, of Fire of Freedom, who declared himself nationalist and anti-Flarlandian. The next year saw the election of Parker Scott in Flarland who was anti-Flarlandian. Gyruba Konona was impeached along with his entire political party on October 1, 2017, however Parker Scott wasn't. With talks of a wall in the border between the two countries, analysts said that the removal of the Flarlandian channels was the start of "a media wall" that forbode Ashtalaians from accessing Flarlandian channels and other content in English.
Since 2019, and especially after the murder of a Hayastelari man in Belmont, a group was set up to restore the Flarlandian channels to Ashtalaian platforms as means to rekindle the once-friendly relations between the two countries. So far nothing has been done in the Ashtalaian side. In the Flarlandian side, Freesat added a version of ART 1 (certain sporting events blacked out due to rights issues, most of them are covered by the FBC) and the FFF's Team channel has provided selected matches of the Ashtalaian League and matches of the Nations League featuring the Ashtalaian national football team with in-house Ashtalaian commentary.
==Legality==
===Sporting events===
Up until 2006 both FBC and ART had the rights to air Formula 1 races, before moving to subscription networks in their respective countries. In the days of analog cable, most providers had to replace FBC 1's signal with ART 1's.
==Consequences==
===Before 2013===
Before the government ruling, there were case studies showing the success of Flarlandian channels
===After 2013===
A 2018 study suggested that English grade notes in school exams decreased sharply when compared to 2013, citing "the termination of Flarlandian channels in Ashtalaia" as the primary cause.
==See also==
*English Language Remembrance Day