On the Internet you can find publications about the unusual practice that developed in the island state in the second half of the 20th century. We have verified the accuracy of such messages.
Portal "Faktrum" asserts: “Until 1987, there was no television broadcast on Thursdays in Iceland. The idea was that Thursday remained a 'day for fellowship'." Similar publications can be found in several enough large public pages on VKontakte, blogs on the website "Culturology.rf" and in LiveJournal.
Technological progress reached Iceland, remote from continental Europe, rather slowly. Thus, the national broadcaster Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) started its work only at the end of 1930, and television broadcasting in Iceland was launched only in 1966. At the same time, at first the programs were broadcast only two evenings a week.
The fact that national television did not work on Thursdays for almost 20 years is reported by a number of quite authoritative sources. First of all this website state broadcaster RÚV. The “interesting fact” popular on the Internet is also confirmed by sources from the 1980s: for example, article in National Comment magazine 1982, American guide 1983 and management US Department of State for Diplomatic Officials 1986.
At the same time, the statement about Thursday as a “social day” without TV is a slight exaggeration. The fact is that the state television channel RÚV did not work in the usual round-the-clock mode - it broadcast only four hours a day until the 1980s, while mainly educational programs and talk shows were broadcast. Thursday night like indicate researchers, did count as "TV-free family time." The situation began to change only in the late 1980s, when a private television channel with more entertainment content appeared in Iceland - RÚV began to compete for viewers. In particular, programs appeared on Thursdays. Shortly before this, in 1983, the state-owned company began operating in July - previously, broadcasting was paused for a whole month so that employees could go on vacation.
Cover photo: Bavarian National Library / Wikimedia Commons
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