Television in Greece
Television broadcasting in Greece began in 1966, preceded in 1951 by statute 1963 permitting television broadcasting. History First broadcasts The first television broadcast in Greece became a reality during the 25th Thessaloniki International Fair (3 September 1960). The Studios were organized by the Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ) pavilion, supplied by Philips, along with other locally improvised equipment. Some years later, a small privately-owned television station started operating round the year from another pavilion in the same fair. This station operated until 1968 when the two new government channels started operation in Thessaloniki and requested the elimination of the "illegal" television station. The two government channels, which held a television monopoly, during that period were ERT and YENED (for the military forces). A third state TV channel, its closure and color TV in Greece After the construction of the OTE Tower in the Thessaloniki Fair area, OTE started a third state TV channel in the SECAM color format. The two initial state channels requested the closing and elimination of the new OTE channel, fearing that OTE would drive them to close, because of the superiority of the color picture, the telecommunications network and the technical superiority of OTE. They succeeded and all the equipment, that OTE already had, passed to YENED, which started what now became ERT3, still broadcasting from Thessaloniki to this day. During the Greek military government period of 1967–74, the programs were a mixture of news and entertainment. A notable serial which still owns the watching record was the war drama O Agnostos Polemos (The Unknown War). After the restoration of the Republic in 1974, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation continue to dominate, appealing to a much larger audience than YENED. Color television broadcasts began in the late 1970s and notable people were placed to improve the quality of the national channels, such as Dimitris Horn, Manos Hatzidakis and the Nobel laureate poet Odysseas Elytis. Color television was officially introduced in 1979, using the French SECAM system. ERT would later merge with YENED in 1982. The merger of ERT and YENED In 1982, ERT and YENED merged, forming "ERT" (Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi), with ERT becoming "ERT1" and YENED becoming "ERT2". Broadcasts originally lasted for seven to eight hours daily starting at about 5:30PM with children shows and then the first televised news of the day. In 1987 an experimental teletext type information screen known as "Tilegrafos" (meaning televised words, i.e. telegraph) showed written information on ET2 during the afternoon. By the late 1980s, television broadcasts on ET1 and ET2 (still commonly known as ERT-1 and ERT-2 until later years) had increased to 12–15 hours daily, though it was still common for one or both stations to sign off briefly in the afternoon and sign back on in the early evening hours. Illegal broadcasts, disputes between the government and Thessaloniki, constant frequency changes, and challenges to ERT's monopoly Some illegal broadcasts made short-lived appearances during the 1980s showing mainly movies of adult nature but, in 1987, the City of Thessaloniki