Abstract

Tiny television

Across the former Communist countries, people bribed or cajoled or otherwise wrenched frequencies away from the chaotic and corrupt remnants of the collapsing systems and won their very own television channels. The majority of commercial electronic media outlets in post-Communist countries today were born as unlicensed pirates, referred as Tiny TV. Camcorders and computer-based editing have made single-person production commonplace. Transmission hardware can often fit in a suitcase. Using home-satellite dishes, the Tinys can stealthily catch and rebroadcast the crumbs of satellite-transmitted Eurosport, MTV and CNN as they whiz past, heading for more lucrative destinations. The very presence of pirate radio and TV stations has forced changes in the law. In Russia, Ukraine and many other places, tiny local stations became so popular that government attempts to shut them down failed, and they now exist legally.