Czechoslovak Television

Czechoslovak Television (ČST) was founded on 1 May 1953 in Czechoslovakia. It was known by three names over its lifetime: Czech: Československá televize, Slovak: Československá televízia (until 1990), Česko-slovenská televízia (from 1990 onwards)

History

ČST started life as a single programme, airing for a short amount of time each day.

Like all other media in the Communist Czechoslovakia, the station was subject to heavy censorship. However, as part of the process of social liberation in 1968, for a few days ČST aired broadcasts about the Prague Spring. However, in 1969, it became part of the normalisation efforts on the national media.

Launch of second channel

On May 10, 1970, Czechoslovak Television began broadcasting a second channel, ČST TV2.

Move to colour

Further technical improvements were made on May 9, 1973, when the first regular broadcasts in colour started on TV2, followed two years later by colour transmission on the first channel as well.

At the end of the decade, in 1979, a studio based in the Kavci mountains was opened, which became the home of ČST's news department.