The history of European televisions’ commercialization is interesting and complex. In many European countries, early attempts to launch some form of private television took place on a local, national, or even supra-national basis. The process of television commercialization in Europe didn’t just start during the 1980s. Its implementation happened from the very beginning, and followed very different paths in each country. This issue on the History of Private and Commercial Television in Europe may help deepen our understanding of how the commercialization of television has shaped media culture in Europe. It offers a scholarly view on the history of private and commercial television in Europe, addressing institutional, technological, political, and cultural perspectives, and their entanglement, so as to allow for transnational comparison.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Editorial Luca Barra, Christoph Classen, Sonja de Leeuw
DISCOVERIES
East Meets West: The Cultural History of Television in Bulgaria Elza Ibroscheva, Maria Raicheva-Stover
A Slippery Slope: The Rise and Fall of the Domestic Soap Opera in Italian Public and Commercial Television Daniela Cardini
Canal + Spain & Live Football Broadcasts: A Whole Different Game Vicente Rodríguez Ortega, Rubén Romero Santos
TV Commercials' Second Life: Commercials as Remembrance Culture in the Netherlands Krystyna Biernawska
‘Remember, it’s just television’: Rubicon TV and the Commercialisation of Norwegian Television Vilde Schanke Sundet, Eva Bakøy
EXPLORATIONS
'The growing practice of calling in continental film groups': the European influence on production of early British TV advertising Alison Jane Payne
Russia’s STS Television Network: A Cultural Window to the West Jeffrey Raymond Brassard
I Want My MTV, We Want Our TMF: The Music Factory, MTV Europe, and Music Television in the Netherlands, 1995–2011 Jaap Kooijman
From PSB to Privatisation: Structures and Vulnerabilities of the Greek-cypriot broadcasting sector Theodora Maniou
The Winding Road on the Media Landscape: The Establishment of Estonian (Television) Broadcasting between 1992 and 2016 Andres Jõesaar