Qabóri Broadcasting Company

Qabóri Broadcasting Company
Launched	Radio: 22 May 1927 (1927-05-22) Television: 16 November 1943 (1943-11-16)
Owned by	QBC Holdings Imperial Government of Tierrador (30%)
Picture format	1080p HDTV
Country	Tierrador
Language	Qabóri
Broadcast area	Mainly South Crona, some broadcasts shown worldwide
Affiliates	QBC Ceylonia QBC Istrenya QBC Malentina QBC Porlos
Headquarters	QBC Building, Qabór, Las Rozas
Replaced	Qabór Radio
Availability
Terrestrial
TerraTel	01
Cable
Avalanche by Orixtal	02
IPTV
Orixtal+	01

The Qabóri Broadcasting Company (QBC) is a Tierradorian public broadcaster for both television and radio. QBC serves serves as the flagship network of the QBC Holdings entertainment conglomerate, while also being partially owned by the Imperial Government of Tierrador, through a 30% stake. It is headquartered in the QBC Building on Block 7 East in Qabór, Las Rozas, with its headquarters overlooking the Kostané Bay and the Songun Sea. QBC is the largest of the Tierradorian "Big three" public broadcasters, the other two being TBS, based in Taisgol, and Televisión Cinco, based in Ambaqwe. QBC is the main Qabóri-language service broadcaster of the trio, with TBS offering Terra Ænglish-language and Televisión Cinco offering both Pelaxian-language and Cartadanian-language services.

Despite some local stations pre-dating its founding, QBC is the oldest continually-existing broadcasting network in South Crona, being officially established on May 22, 1927, as a radio network. On November 16, 1943, QBC established the first South Cronan television network, for the purpose of broadcasting the final events of the Second Great War to the people of Tierrador. The company was one of three broadcasters that had established television networks on that day, via Crown Order. Originally, QBC had been funded by television licensing fees, however as the licensing funding was split amongst the two other networks, this method eventually became impractical, and all three networks were placed under the newly-created Office of Media, which receives funding from the Imperial Government. License fees were still collected by the government until 1951, but they were mainly pooled into the government's general revenue for that year.

QBC offers programming services mainly in Qabóri, as it was designated by the 1943 Crown Order. However, they have also begun to offer services in Terra Ænglish, along with services more than 20 Abio languages. The network has 14 owned-and-operated stations across South Crona, with 8 in Tierrador, 2 each in Ceylonia and Porlos, and 1 each in Istrenya and Malentina. In addition, QBC has more than 240 affiliated stations throughout the aforementioned South Cronan countries. Some QBC-affiliated stations are available in Alstin and Asteria via pay-television providers, and some affiliates can be received over-the-air in areas situated on the Porlos-Alstin border.

History

Qabór Radio (1927–1943)

Before the establishment of a uniform national radio network in Tierrador, most Tierradorians were only able to listen to local radio networks, which in turn were only available in larger metropolitan areas of the country. People in much smaller, rural areas, were only able to receive news via paper media, which was very inconvenient as most newspapers in South Crona were delivered a day after the events had already occurred. In 1925, the Imperial Government under the Walakee State had determined that a nationalized radio network that spanned throughout South Crona was needed for the area. Therefore, in 1927, the first radio network in Tierrador, Qabór Radio, was launched nationwide. Three years later, another nationalized radio station, the Ænglish-language TBS, would also be established under the same intentions as Qabór Radio, however with Ænglish-language services rather than Qabór Radio's Qabóri-language services.

In 1931, Qabór Radio began to take over multiple radio stations in Porlos and Ceylonia, which allowed for it to broadcast all over South Crona. Due to below-average relations with Istrenya and Malentina at the time, Qabór Radio would not begin operations in those countries until 1976. For the next couple of decades, Qabór Radio would be responsible for all radio broadcasting innovations within Tierrador. As it was considered to be the main public broadcaster of the country, Qabór Radio would also have the highest number of listeners in Tierrador, due to technological advancements of that time allowing the company to broadcast in rural areas which normally would not have had access to daytime radio unless they paid a large sum of money, to which most could not afford.

In 1932, Qabór Radio extended its broadcast day to 24 hours, being the first radio broadcaster in Crona to do so. Both TBS and Qabór Radio quickly jumped to the top-two most-listened networks in Crona. However, as the Walakee State had became slightly more authoritarian over the course of the 1930s, the networks started to experience heavy censorship by the government. This included controlling most radio programs to the point where producers were required to submit drafts of their program's itinerary for review by the IUC, with the review turning into a long and drawn-out bureaucratic process that resulted in most producers pulling their programs from Qabór Radio.

The beginning of the Second Great War in 1934 was recorded by Tierradorian journalists sent by the Walakee State as a method of justifying the regime's neutrality in the global conflict. The war was the first war to be broadcasted on radio in Tierrador, and many began to support the anti-war sentiment from the Imperial Government. A large portion of the war's Cronan theater were broadcasted throughout the South Songun Peninsula, which sent a wave a fear over the residents of the peninsula, who believed that they would somehow be dragged into the war.

Early years of QBC (1943–1955)

While the war raged on in South Crona and the rest of the world, Qabór Radio had made many advancements of its own. In 1942, it was announced that Qabór Radio would be renamed to the Qabóri Broadcasting Company, and it would begin offering television broadcasts nationwide. On May 19, 1943, the first television broadcast in QBC history premiered, the live broadcast of the signing and ratification of the Treaty of Kartika, which officially ended the Second Great War. Over the course of the 1940s, television broadcasts became a popular luxury amongst upper-class Tierradorians, as televisions were hard to come by at that time. In 1944, QBC began showing daily news broadcasts from the recently-acquired WQB-TV, renaming it to WQBC-TV and operating it as the network's flagship owned-and-operated station from Qabór.

After WQBC had signed on the air, more owned-and-operated stations began to follow suit: WTS-TV in Taisgol signed on the air in March 1945, KTLC-TV in Ominasky and WCCG-TV in Ambaqwe in April, KPRI-TV in Prisamarina in May, and KMIC-TV in Miccubo in August. Eventually, Porlosi stations KNQI-TV (Naqili) and KAT-TV (Anteerii), and Ceylon station WEST-TV (East Sachia) were bought by QBC as the only three non-Tierradorian owned-and-operated stations of the company. In 1947, The Attenats, starring Aphío Attenat, premiered as the first weekly sitcom on the network. The Attenats would release new episodes every Saturday until 1992, making it the longest-running sitcom in television history.

In 1951, Pedro Kintón succeeded Satola Sanléc as the Grand Woqali of Tierrador, and quickly began to reform several aspects of the country, including its broadcasting industry. Kintón's domestic cultural policy of "Tierrador-first" meant increased funding for the Qabóri-language QBC, though at the expense of other non-Qabóri broadcasters. Despite this, QBC was able to expand its operations with the newfound funding and took over as the main public broadcaster of Tierrador. In 1953, QBC began television broadcasts of select OIAA college football games, as television began to replace radio as the main form of media. The first nationally-televised match was the 1953 edition of the Origins rivalry between Taisgol University and Qabór University, which ended 34–29 in favor of the Taisgol Saints.

The 1954 Orchid Bowl between the Anbarsnia Burgundy Knights and the Prisamarina Urlazians, who were both undefeated at 10–0 and were playing for the national title, was broadcasted on QBC. The game had close to 21 million viewers across Tierrador, Porlos, and Ceylonia, which made the 22–19 victory for the Burgundy Knights the most-watched college football game in OIAA Division I history until 1971.

Kintónist propaganda era (1955–1989)

Kintón began to use his influence on the QBC network as a means to spread pro-Walakee propaganda throughout the country, and even throughout the world. In 1957, QBC began broadcasting in Delepasia, as the two nations, sharing somewhat similar ideologies, began to broadcast their views on the respective populations of both countries. With this decision, Kintón began to expand his influence on the Vallosian subcontinent. Also in 1957 saw the increase of pirate radio stations throughout the Orixtal Sea near mainland Tierrador. The Western cluster was an interconnected cluster of decommissioned oil rigs which were transformed into radio transmitters, began airing anti-Walakee propaganda, and broadcasted banned popular music from Levantia and Alstin.

Nobody in Kintón's administration knew where the Western Cluster was based until 1974, when it was discovered through satellite imagery that the cluster was in the Gulf of Telohakee-Alcosky, a position about 170 nautical miles off the coast of Natbanett, Alcosky. During the Calico Bay War and the Mosquito War, which both occurred in the mid to late-1960s, QBC and the Western Cluster began competing for airtime, with the QBC broadcasting outrageous justifications for Tierrador's involvement in both wars and the Western Cluster calling for middle and lower-class residents to organize against the Walakee State, as they were by far the most affected economic classes of both the wars. The end of the Mosquito War had also brought an end to the QBC-Western Cluster's broadcast war, and QBC slowly returned to its normal programming. In the 1970s, QBC began to sway from propaganda broadcasts back to normal news and sports broadcasts. In 1969, QBC signed the first television deal with the Orixtal Hockey League, where it would broadcast every year's Watson Cup Finals series' from 1969 to 2010. Meanwhile, once the Western cluster had been caught in the Gulf of Telohakee-Alcosky, the IUC had shut down the cluster's transmitters and arrested the people who were involved, including the mastermind, Antti Ketnettek. Ketnettek was sentenced to 45 years in an imperial penitentiary for anti-Walakee rhetoric, at the time a Class-II felony, however he would be pardoned by Qaphenć Ataba Markkanenet in 1984, shortly after Kintón's death.

In 1978, QBC launched South Crona Tonight, which was originally hosted by Keppett Burns. South Crona Tonight the first nightly news block that did not cover topics previously approved by the Walakee State. The question of whether this program was allowed to run was a hot debate topic for its first few years of existence. Despite the Walakee State's attitude towards political dissidence, South Crona Tonight had found several loopholes which allowed for it to be approved by the ICC. In 1981, when announcing Asteria's initial invasion of Ulunkheria during the Cowboy Crisis, Burns called Asteria a "useless, backwater shithole" on live television and laughed hysterically at a video of guerrilla fighters in Winnecomac burning the country's flag for over ten minutes, while the show's producers watched with shock. Burns later admitted he was impaired by cocaine and a mixture of rum and TerraCola. Originally, QBC had intended to fire Burns for his unprofessional mannerisms and impairment, however seeing the massive influx of viewership from different countries, QBC allowed Burns to stay. Towards the middle of the 1980s, QBC would begin to reorganize its internal structure. The broadcaster had purchased IKB-TV in Karaba, Istrenya in June 1984, and would later purchase MHRK-TV in Hierkuun, Malentina, which was regarded as the first interactions between Tierrador and Istrenya since the Mosquito War.

South Crona Tonight and various other QBC news blocks televised the entirety the Ten Cities' Uprising for the three months that it lasted, up until the return of the House of Woqelee to the Taisgol Teklan on Christmas Day of 1989, which was broadcasted on QBC across the world. The broadcast had dethroned the original Treaty of Kartika broadcast as the most-viewed in South Crona, as the political, cultural, and economic influence seen by this event had superseded those of the Treaty, which had not even directly involved Tierrador.

Post-Walakee State era (1989–present)

Newly-coronated Mokhar II had once again reorganized the QBC, diverting the previously skewed funding, which was in favor of the QBC, away and back towards TBS and the newly-founded Televisión Cinco. In 1990, QBC was split into five main divisions, based on the countries of which it featured owned-and-operated stations in (Ceylonia, Istrenya, Malentina, Porlos, Tierrador). In 1994, WQBC-TV became the first QBC-affiliated/owned-and-operated station to switch from analog to digital broadcasting, which had set a domino effect of various QBC, and later TBS and TV5-affiliated stations to do the same throughout the 1990s-2000s. In 2008, the IUC had ordered all affiliated stations of QBC, TBS, and TV5 switch from analog to digital broadcasting by New Year's Eve 2012. This would be completed in February 2013, a month and a half past the deadline. KPRI-TV and KSEV-TV (Sevier), and KNAI-TV (Naihungo), were each fined ₽3,000 for switching past the deadline.

The 2010s and 2020s saw a rise in low-but-moderate hit television programs, as a means to fill out their broadcast days. Despite this, the most-watched programs on QBC were strictly sports and news media. In 2016, QBC acquired the Cronan Sports Programming Network (CSPN), and launched a successful bid to retrieve the rights to the Orixtal Hockey League, jointly sharing the broadcasting rights with TV5, and later TBS in 2021.

Programming

Regular programming

QBC provides an average of 85 hours of weekly network programming, the most of the three major South Cronan broadcasters. It also offers 21 hours of primetime weekly programming to both owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, from the hours of 8p.m. to 11p.m. Programming on QBC includes the Kiravian-based South Crona Morning Post, which typically airs every morning from 6a.m. to 10a.m. Immediately following that varies on the day of the week. On most weekdays, you will see a lineup of different hour or two hour-long talk shows, including The Itinerary from 10a.m. to noon, Lunchtime with Taiyo Kelikka from noon to 1p.m., and Off Work from 5p.m. to 6p.m. Between 1-5p.m. and 6-8p.m. is typically reserved for sitcoms and soap operas, such as (its 6am and i cant think of names so pretend theres like 5-6 sitcoms here). Following the sitcom block is South Crona Tonight, which historically had been hosted by anchor and former OHL player Keppett Burns, but the duty had eventually been passed on to his nephew, Burt Burns. Burns has been given the nickname "Tierrador's voice," due to his heavy Tierradorian accent and his representation of the country in international broadcasting affairs, such as major sports events.

Sports

QBC provides sports programming on occasion, primarily on weekend afternoons and Saturday evenings. The first sporting event broadcasted on QBC was the 112th annual Origins collegiate football matchup between the Taisgol University Saints and the Qabór University Woqalis, on November 21, 1953. Taisgol won the game, 34–29. The next sporting event on QBC was that season's Orchid Bowl, which was later designated as the National Championship Game for that year. That matchup was won on a last-second field goal by the Anbarsnia Burgundy Knights over the Prisamarina Urlazians. It was the most-watched sporting event in South Crona for some time, until being overtaken by the 1971 Bourbon Bowl.

QBC and CSPN have collaborated to broadcast major sporting events nationwide since 2003, and most primetime events broadcasted on QBC were under the brand name CSPN on QBC. CSPN on QBC broadcasted every Watson Cup Finals series' consecutively from 1969 to 2007. After a brief hiatus due to the OHL not renewing their broadcast deal with QBC from 2007 to 2015, QBC returned as the primary broadcaster for the Finals, alternating with TV5. QBC currently broadcasts the series on even-numbered years.

Both QBC and CSPN has also had the rights to broadcast weekly Sunday-night primetime Premiership matches since 1987. Currently, Premiership matches account for the most viewers on QBC's sports broadcasting lineup. QBC also broadcasts the Copá Terranóc final every year, which is considered as the most prestigious football tournament in the country.

Thirdly, QBC and CSPN share the broadcasting rights of the OIAA's many college football teams across South Crona with almost every other major broadcaster in the region. QBC hosts the primetime Saturday Triple-header, which features three consecutive primetime matchups starting at noon, 3:30p.m., and 7:00p.m. QBC also broadcasts all of the New Year's Eight bowl games, including the NY8 pair designated as the College Football Playoff semifinals and the subsequent National Championship Game.

Stations

Since its inception, QBC has carried programming through over 270 stations.