Is it true that Icelandic television did not work on Thursdays for several years?

On the Internet you can find publications about the unusual practice that has developed in the island state in the second half of the 20th century. We checked the reliability of such messages.

Portal "Fakrum" claims: “Until 1987, Iceland had no television on Thursdays. The idea was that Thursday remained "day for communication." Similar publications can be found in several enough large public in VKontakte, on blogs on the site "Culturology.rf" and in Livejournal.

To Iceland, distant from continental Europe, technological progress reached quite slowly. So, the National Broadcaster Ríkisótvarpi (Roun) Started Only at the end of 1930, and broadcasting in Iceland was launched only in 1966. At the same time, at first the programs were released only two evenings a week.

The fact that national television has not worked on Thursdays for almost 20 years, reports a number of quite authoritative sources. First of all, it is website State television and radio company Rough. Sources of the 1980s also confirm the popular “interesting fact” on the Internet: for example, article in the 1982 National Comment magazine, American guide 1983 and management US State Department for 1986 diplomatic workers.

At the same time, the statement about the Thursday as a “day for communication” without a TV is a slight exaggeration. The fact is that the state television channel Rough did not work in the round-the-clock mode usual-it broadcast only four hours a day until the 1980s, while mainly educational programs and talk shows came out. Thursday evening, like indicate Researchers were really considered "family time without TV." The situation began to change only in the late 1980s, when a private television channel with more entertainment content appeared in Iceland-Roun began to compete for the viewer. In particular, programs on Thursdays appeared. Shortly before, in 1983, the state -owned company began working in July - earlier broadcasting for a whole month was paused to pause so that employees Could go on vacation.

Photo on the cover: Bavarian National Library / Wikimedia Commons

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