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Television has a long history in Ukraine, where regular television broadcasting started during the Soviet years in 1951. However the first ever TV broadcast took place on 1 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.

History

Experimental broadcasts during World War II

thumb|View of the first house where experimental television was broadcast in Ukraine in 1939, at Instytutska 2, several blocks down from the looming [[Ginsburg Skyscraper in the background. Most of the buildings seen here were destroyed by Soviet bombs in 1941.]]

The first official direct broadcast took place in Kyiv on 1 February 1939 at Instytutska 2 on the corner of Instytutska Street and Khreshchatyk Street. It was 40 minutes long and showed the portrait of Sergo Ordzhonikidze. The first three television presenters in the history of Ukraine were, in order; Novela Serpionova and Olga Danylenko in 1952, and Olena Nikolaeva in 1953. Nikolaeva replaced Serpionova when she returned to radio broadcasting in 1953. Because Serpionova left before a full year was out, she was largely forgotten by most Ukrainian viewers, and her status as the first television presenter in Ukraine was not recognized until the 60th anniversary of Ukrainian television.

May 30, 1954, during the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Pereiaslav Council, which commemorated the "reunification" of Ukraine with Russia, history was made. On that day, the first true outdoor broadcast of Ukrainian television took place: a live TV broadcast aired live from the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater, where an official ceremony was held as part of the tricentennial celebrations. The broadcast was conducted using the PTS-49 outside broadcasting van—one of the first mobile broadcast units developed in the Soviet Union, based largely on an earlier American model. Although transmissions remained in black and white, the PTS-49 OB vans significantly expanded television's reach beyond the studio walls. This advancement enabled live coverage from stadiums, sports events, factories, exhibitions, and collective farms—marking what could be considered the true beginning of Ukrainian television as a public medium.

thumb|[[Olga Danylenko (left) and Olena Nikolaeva (right) had to completely memorize their lines before broadcasts. They are widely thought of as the first television presenters in Ukraine.]]

Regular programming started to go on air beginning November 1956. This building was for many years the 6th tallest structure in Ukraine. 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".

As of January 2009, Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko refused to appear in Inter TV-programmes "until journalists, management and owners of the TV channel stop destroying the freedom of speech and until they remember the essence of their profession - honesty, objectiveness, and unbiased stand".

In early March 2014, Ukraine-based TV channels were removed in Crimea ahead of the Russian annexation referendum. 15 more Russian TV channels were banned in March 2016.

According to the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No.509 dated June 13, 2018, analogue broadcasting was disconnected on the territory of Kirovohrad Oblast and Kyiv from July 31, 2018. The date of the switch-off of analogue broadcasting on the rest of Ukraine is August 31, 2018

A Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found that for the first time Ukrainians preferred the Internet as their primary news source instead of television (51% preferred the Internet and 41% TV).

Timeline of Ukrainian public TV broadcasting history

Early Development (1939–1950s)

Source:

  • 1939: The first experimental television broadcast in Kyiv occurred on February 1, featuring a 40-minute transmission of photographs of Sergo Ordzhonikidze from a small studio in central Kyiv.
  • 1951: Marks the beginning of the modern era of Ukrainian television. Trial airings occurred on November 5, 6, and 7:
  • November 5: Airing of the film "Alitet Leaves for the Mountains."
  • November 6: Propaganda film "Velyka Zahrava" (The Great Glow) aired - Official Birthday of Ukrainian Television
  • November 7: First live broadcast — coverage of the October Revolution civil-military parade from Khreshchatyk Street.
  • 1952: The first television announcers appeared: Olga Danylenko, Elena Nikolaeva, and Novella Serpionova.
  • 1954: The first outside broadcasting van (PTS-52) was introduced, enabling live coverage of major events, including the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Council and a Dynamo Kyiv football match.

Institutional Growth and Expansion (1960s–1980s)

Source: that Ukraine's national terrestrial TV network, which is scheduled to be launched in September 2011, will use the DVB-T2 standard for all four nationwide FTA multiplexes, for both SD and HD broadcasts. Before settling for DVB-T2, Ukraine was testing both DVB-T/MPEG-2 and DVB-T/MPEG-4 options, and some experimental transmitters operating in those standards are still alive.

Other technologies

Commercial MMDS digital TV services work in Kyiv and some other cities.

DVB-C services delivering premium channels (in addition to standard analogue channels) launched in cable networks of Kyiv, Odesa, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Donetsk and some other cities.

Broadcasting

As of February 2019, television broadcasting in Ukraine is available in a colour digital format, via:

  • digital TV
  • satellite TV
  • cable television (Volia, regional operators)
  • online services and IPTV (the most famous ones are Divan TV, Sweet TV, MEGOGO, Handy TV)

There is a choice between several free-to-air commercial broadcasters as well as the public broadcaster, the Suspilne. In addition to its metropolitan asset, Pershyi and an art station, Suspilne Kultura, the Suspilne also owns regional stations in all regions of Ukraine. A national parliamentary channel, Rada, is available too.

Commercial television is dominated by three major broadcasters: 1+1 media, StarLightMedia and Inter Media Group, which is the smallest Ukrainian major broadcaster. One of the main Ukrainian news channels, Channel 5, belongs to a former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

Regional television in Ukraine consists primarily of independently owned networks not affiliated with major broadcasters in each region.

Subscription television consists of various providers. The largest providers are Kyivstar, Viasat and Volia. In remote areas, there are many small independent providers that provide either satellite or cable television services.

Community television launched in mid-2010s to broadcast Euromaidan protests. As of 2019, the sector is represented by Hromadske.tv which is an Internet television station.

List of channels

DTT channels

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"

! colspan="4" | Public broadcasting

|-

! Channel !! Owner !! Established !! Website

|-

|Pershyi||Suspilne|| 1951 ||https://suspilne.media/news/schedule/tv/

|-

|Suspilne Sport/<br>Suspilne Regional ||Suspilne|| 2023/<br>varies ||http://suspilne.media/sport<br>http://corp.suspilne.media/regionalchannel

|-

|Suspilne Kultura||Suspilne|| 2002 ||http://suspilne.media/culture

|-

|Rada TV ||Parliament of Ukraine|| 1999 ||http://tv.rada.gov.ua/

|-

|Army TV ||Ministry of Defence of Ukraine|| 2023 ||http://armytv.com.ua/

|-

! colspan="4" | Commercial

|-

! Channel !! Owner !! Established !! Website

|-

|1+1 Marathon

|1+1 media

|1995

|http://www.1plus1.ua/tag/11-marafon

|-

|1+1 Ukraine

|1+1 media

|2022

|http://www.1plus1.ua/

|-

|Inter

|Inter Media Group

|1996

|http://www.inter.ua/

|-

|ICTV

|Starlight Media

|1992

|http://www.ictv.ua/

|-

|ICTV2|| Starlight Media || 2022 || http://www.ictv.ua/ictv2

|-

|2+2 || 1+1 media || 2006 || http://www.2plus2.ua/

|-

|NTN

|Inter Media Group

|2004

|http://www.ntn.ua/

|-

|Novyi Kanal||Starlight Media || 1998 || http://www.novy.tv/

|-

|TET || 1+1 media || 1992 || http://www.tet.tv/

|-

|K1

|Inter Media Group

|2005

|http://www.k1.ua/

|-

|STB || Starlight Media || 1997 || http://www.stb.ua/

|-

|PlusPlus || 1+1 media || 2012 || http://www.plus-plus.tv/

|-

|Bigudi || 1+1 media || 2014 || http://www.bigudi.tv/

|-

|Svit+ || 1+1 media || 2024 ||

|-

|UNIAN. Serial || 1+1 media || 2010 || http://www.unian.tv/

|-

|K2 || Inter Media Group || 2005 || http://k2.ua/

|-

|Zoom || Inter Media Group || 2007 || http://zoomua.tv/

|-

|Mega || Inter Media Group || 2005 || http://megatv.ua/

|-

|Pixel TV || Inter Media Group || 2012 || http://pixelua.tv/

|-

|Enter-Film || Inter Media Group || 2002 || http://enterfilm.com.ua/

|-

|OCE || Starlight Media || 2017 || http://www.oce-tv.tv/

|-

|Tviy serial || Starlight Media || 2023 ||

|-

|Super+ || Starlight Media || 2024 ||

|-

|5 kanal || Free Media Holding || 2003 || http://www.5.ua/

|-

|Pryamiy kanal || Free Media Holding || 2017 || http://www.prm.ua/

|-

|Espreso || Ivan Zhevago (77,5%) and<br>Larysa Kniazhytska (22,5%) || 2013 || http://www.espreso.tv/

|-

|Megogo Sport || Megogo || 2024 || http://www.megogo.net/

|-

|Konkurent Ukraine || Group Konkurent || 2025 || http://www.konkurent.tv/

|-

|Sonce || Studio Pilot || 2013 || http://www.sonce.tv/

|-

|My-Ukraina|| Igor Petrenko (de jure)<br />Andriy Yermak (de facto) || 2022 || http://www.weukraine.tv/

|-

|My-Ukraina+|| Igor Petrenko (de jure)<br />Andriy Yermak (de facto) || 2024 || http://www.weuaplus.tv/

|-

|Rozpakuy TV || Volodymyr Broslavets' || 2020 || http://www.rozpakuy.com/

|-

|Rozpakuy Hitline (planned) || Volodymyr Broslavets' || 2026 ||

|-

|Tuso || Vira Simonova || 2021 || http://www.tuso.ua/

|-

|BTQ Beauty Trust Quality || Iryna Katyushchenko || 2023 || http://www.btq.in.ua/

|-

|}

Satellite and cable

  • English Club TV
  • Music Box UA
  • 8 channel
  • EU Music
  • 4ever Music
  • BoutiqueTV
  • Eko-TV
  • Milady Television
  • Pershyi Avtomobilny Channel
  • 24 Kanal
  • Nadiya (Hope Channel Ukraine)
  • Sonce TV
  • PORT-MONE TV
  • Discovery Channel Ukraine
  • TLC Ukraine
  • National Geographic Channel Ukraine
  • Nat Geo Wild Ukraine
  • Da Vinci Learning Ukraine
  • Deutsche Welle
  • AMC
  • FX
  • FX Life

Local

  • Kyiv 24 news
  • Pershiy Zakhidniy
  • ATR
  • Lale
  • Grad TV Odesa

International

  • 1+1 International
  • Kvartal TV International (Pay TV)
  • Inter+
  • Dim (also broadcast in DTT local MUX in Lithuania)
  • FreeDom (also broadcast in DTT in Estonia, Tet Pay TV DTT in Latvia and local MUX in Lithuania)

Criticism

Some political and public activists criticize Ukrainian television, mainly some national channels, for broadcasting large amounts of content of Russian origin. According to calculations of Boycott Russian Films activists, in September 2014 the amount of Russian productions on the leading Ukrainian channels ("Ukrayina", "ICTV", "NTN", "Novyi Kanal", "Inter", "STB", "2+2", "TET", "K1", "1+1") was approximately 40%. In October and December activists noticed increasing of amounts of Russian content on these channels, then Ukraine was at war with Russia.

Also activists criticise Ukrainian channels for their language policy. In October 2014 activists have published statistics on content language on Ukrainian channels. According to them, at the time 29% was completely Ukrainian language content, 39.3% completely Russian language content, 23.5% Russian language content with Ukrainian subtitles, and 8.2% bilingual content (both Ukrainian and Russian).

2019 Ukrainian presidential election

During the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, various Ukrainian television channels supported a candidate for President of Ukraine.

Five groups supported Poroshenko:

  • Petro Poroshenko's Channel 5 and Pryamiy supported Poroshenko and were very critical of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Yulia Tymoshenko.
  • Dmytro Firtash's very powerful Inter supported Yuriy Boyko and Poroshenko.
  • Rinat Akhmetov's TRK Ukraina, which is owned by Akhmetov's System Capital Management Holdings, supported Poroshenko, Oleh Lyashko, and Oleksandr Vilkul. Akhmetov's Opposition Bloc nominated Vilkul.
  • Viktor Medvedchuk's Channel 112 and Yevheniy Murayev's NewsOne supported Poroshenko, Lyashko, and Boyko. Medvedchuk's Opposition Platform — For Life nominated Boyko. The godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter is Vladimir Putin.
  • Petro Dyminskyi's ZIK supported Poroshenko's allies allowing them to explain their story while they were under investigation.

Three TV groups were very critical of Poroshenko:

  • Ihor Kolomoisky's 1+1 media group supported Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kolomoisky and Zelenskyy are business partners.
  • Andriy Sadovyi's Channel 24, supported Anatoliy Hrytsenko and opposed Poroshenko.
  • Yevheniy Murayev's Nash TV supported Vilkul and was against Poroshenko but neutral to Tymoshenko and Lyashko.

Under the state-owned National Public Broadcasting Company, UA:Pershyi was critical of Poroshenko.

Victor Pinchuk's ICTV, Novyi Kanal and STB were neutral.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

thumb|250px|The United News [[telethon|TV Marathon]]

Since the start of the invasion on , most Ukrainian television channels switched over to the signal of Rada TV. The channel was made state-owned at the end of 2021. Following , the four biggest broadcasters including the TV channels Pershyi, 1+1, ICTV and Inter began broadcasting a 24/7 united newscast called United News () that is produced in turn by the various channels and amended with official information by governmental agencies to "objectively and promptly provide comprehensive information from different regions of the country 24/7". However, the channel has been criticized by Ukrainians for spreading disinformation on topics related to the war. As of 2025, the primary source of information by Ukrainians is Telegram, which itself is filled with disinformation. Nongovernmental channels can only be viewed by satellite or the internet.

See also

  • Television in the Soviet Union

References

Bibliography

  • Wilson,A. Virtual Politics - Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. "Yale University Press", 2005.
  • History of television in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Channel One