TV1 (North Korea)

TV1 is the flagship channel of the Korean Central Television network.

Formation
In January 2016, a front with intentions to overthrow Kim Jong-Un and his totalitarian dictatorship over North Korea succeeded and took control of the country, and made a massive change to the nation's ideology. It would still be run by one "leader", however this new leader would use his/her power to ensure that the country is as free and liberal (within reason) as possible, whilst reversing NK's communist, isolated image, and turning it into a more modern country like China or South Korea.

The new leader instantly seized control of the state-run TV network KCTV (Korean Central Television). After years upon years of it being constantly used as a propaganda outlet (that all North Korean TVs were forcefully tuned to in an attempt to make the receivership of outside broadcasts impossible), the front-turned-leading-party announced that KCTV would become a multi-channel public service network, similar to KBS, the NHK or the BBC. TV1 would be a generalist channel that would use the old KCTV frequencies, rendering TV1 as viewable by anyone in North Korea, even through the old propaganda TV sets.

The new leader looked to East Asian media giant Kabushiki Gaisha ABS as soon as the plans were revealed, and ABS stated that it was "happy to help with a new country's equally new TV network, especially after the damage caused to the face of North Korean media by the Kim family". It also invited Arirang TV (an internationally-oriented South Korean network), SBS (one of South Korea's most popular domestic television channels) and TV Asahi (a long time ABS partner hailing from Japan) to help.

KCTV's old "Juche" logo was ditched in favour of a minimalist, modern logo, designed by the new leader himself.

Programming
Compared to the old KCTV's output of entirely locally-produced programming mostly created for propaganda purposes, TV1 airs a variety of entertainment programmes outsourced from South Korea and Japan, whilst TV1 creates its own news programmes for national broadcast every evening at 7:30pm.

Its commitment to public service states that all English-language programming will be subtitled in Korean, whilst Japanese-language ABS/TV Asahi programmes would have English/Korean subtitles. Dubbing is not justified by the network, citing "expense, risk of losing faithfulness to the original voice casts, and fear that it may drive away foreigners and tourists from the channel".

The 7:30pm news bulletin is presented with a sign-language interpreter during the "weekend": from Friday to Sunday.