Television in Afghanistan

Television in Afghanistan started broadcasting in August 1978, flourishing until the 1990s, when hostilities in the capital Kabul destroyed broadcasting infrastructure. Between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban government outlawed television, though some stations in areas outside Taliban control continued to broadcast. After their removal, country-wide television broadcasting was resumed beginning with the government-run channel Afghanistan National Television. It was reported that Afghanistan currently has over 200 local and international television channels, 96 in Kabul and 107 in other provinces of the country. In 2014, the country commenced a switch from analog to digital TV transmission.

History

The conceptual foundation of television in Afghanistan was first elucidated by Dr. Hafiz Sahar, chief editor of ''Eslah'' national daily newspaper, in his 1967 investigative academic work at New York University. He made compelling argument and advocated, based on other developing countries experiences, the need for television as an educational tool as well as practical solutions to initial technical problems of bringing television in Afghanistan, such as “Kabul itself is dominated by two high hills that make excellent natural broadcasting towers, thus, simplifying coverage problems”.

Technical and financial aid provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) kickstarted the construction work of the studio and transmitter buildings in 1976, with the work completed by August 1978. The state-owned Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA, previously just Radio Afghanistan) launched the first TV channel in Afghanistan at first broadcasting for two hours daily. During the 1980s, many Soviet programs were airing such as the children's show ''Nu Pogodi!''. The studios of RTA were also often used by musicians to record music videos.

From 1992 onward television went into decline as a result of the war in Kabul, destroying infrastructure. During the Taliban government between 1996 and 2001, television was strictly banned—especially after 8 July 1998—and stores selling TVs, satellite dishes, VCRs, or other similar technology entertainment devices were closed. Anyone owning or watching TV was arrested and punished. The national television broadcaster was closed down, whilst private broadcasters' buildings and studios were smashed by the regime's police. A smaller territory that was controlled by the Northern Alliance in the country's northeast province of Badakhshan had a television channel financed by the Northern Alliance that broadcast, with a weak signal, news and movies to approximately 5,000 people in the city of Fayzabad. The station had a large library of movies and documentaries on VHS and Betamax for broadcasting, and the American movie ''First Blood'' was reportedly the most favored by watchers. Nonetheless, the station still had some levels of censorship, banning films containing women in swimsuits, singing or dancing (under the pressure of fundamentalists from the Northern Alliance), however gory and violent scenes were kept intact. The Betamax player that played most of the movies the station had was broken.

When the Karzai administration came to power in December 2001, Afghanistan's earliest television channel was relaunched. The transmission site at the summit of Asamayi was seriously damaged after the U.S. invasion, so the relaunched TV in Kabul was only transmitting from a 200 watt set. The JICA, who originally helped develop television in the 1970s, was consulted once again for redeveloping the transmitters. Later, Tolo and Shamshad TV became one of the first commercial TV stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by offering a large library of shows.

In 2014, Afghanistan launched a pact with Eutelsat for a satellite, which was launched in 2014 as Afghansat 1 and transmits TV channels.

As of 2019, Afghanistan has over 200 local and international television channels, 96 in Kabul and 107 in other provinces of the country.

Since the Taliban ascend to power in August 2021, some media restrictions have been applied that have affected TV in Afghanistan. It was reported in November 2021 that they banned women from appearing in TV dramas. In March 2022 the Taliban banned stations from broadcasting localized Pashto or Dari language broadcasts from the BBC
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