Television in Ukraine

Television has a long history in Ukraine, with regular television broadcasting started during the former USSR years in 1951. However the first ever TV broadcast took place on the 1st February 1939 in Kyiv. Since then TV broadcasting has expanded, particularly after the fall of Communism in 1989, and now there are many different channels and groups in the Ukrainian TV market.

The first official broadcast took place in Kiev on 1 February 1939. It was 40 minutes long and showed the portrait of Sergo Ordzhonikidze. After World War II, on 6 November 1951, a Kyiv tele-centre made a debut with a live broadcasting of the patriotic movie "The Great Glow". Next day the telecentre went on air again by broadcasting the solemn measures of celebrating the 34th anniversary of the October Revolution.

On 1 May 1952, a concert went on air (shot in the small and only pavilion of the telecentre known as "Studio B") of Ukrainian singers, soloists of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko Opera Theater. The anchorwoman of the concert was the Kyiv Telecentre's first announcer - Novela Separionova. In 1953, the construction of the building of the Kyiv Telecentre on Khreshchatyk was completed, right after the finishing of the Moscow and Leningrad Telecentres. Regular programs started to go on air in 1956. Until that year, the Telecentre went on air twice a day showing feature films or documentaries. Live broadcasting was the only form of broadcasting. Recording video became usual in the mid-1960s.

The first regular national channel appeared on January 20, 1965 under the name UT-1 (Ukrainian television - 1, today - Pershyi National), while on March 6, 1972 a second channel, UT-2, was created. In 1983, the new telecenter started to be built at the 42 Melnyk Street, which was opened after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993.

After the Orange Revolution, Ukrainian television became more free. In February 2009 the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting claimed that "political pressure on mass media increased in recent times through amending laws and other normative acts to strengthen influence on mass media and regulatory bodies in this sphere".

...
Wikipedia