EBC One

ETV1 is the flagship national television channel of the Euro Republics. It is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, including ETV National News, primetime drama and entertainment, and some sports events.

The channel's annual budget for 2012–2013 was £1.14 billion. It is funded by commercial advertising and has been since the early 1990s following the scrapping od the license fee. It is currently the second most watched television channel in the Euro Republics, behind of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, TV3.

History
The channel's first experimental broadcast was on 27 November 1950. The regular ERTV television service started on 31 October 1951.

The new channel consisted of jointly-produced shows such as the Evening National News. The programs were coordinated by the Programme Director based in Euro City. Besides several entertainment programmes, ERTV went political in 1957 when it launched its first political TV magazine, Panorama. the Euro Republic's first political TV show adopted the slogan "What is being talked about and what should be talked about" and pictured all aspects of postwar Euroish society— including conflict-laden topics, scandals, and other taboo topics.

ERTV's first major soap opera, Highway to Haven Road, began in 1963. Euro Republican Television began regular colour transmissions on 10 March 1969 after tests that had dated back 10 years. With this came the launch of the iconic "blue eye" logo that was used for 15 years. There were two variations of the logo, with the main version (see right) used into programmes, and a closedown variation with a caption saying "GOOD NIGHT" below the logo, which was seen for around 30-60 seconds (often in complete silence) at the end of the channel's daily broadcast.

ERTV planned a second television service to go on air in 1970, however, these plans fell flat to allow funding for new second channels for the German & French market of the country. ERTV also claimed that North parts of the country being able to receive BBC & ITV via spillover was a factor in cancelling the channel.

ERTV announced that a cable network would be launched in southern areas in 1972, called Cablevision which would carry ERTV, BBC One, BBC Two, TF1 & two ITV regions, specifically, Southern & Thames/LWT. Later additions included ERTV2, Channel 4, S4C & CNN, before the service was sold to new commercial network TV3 in 1988, and was merged into ET1 in 1990, which in turn saw extra subscription channels from the satellite service launch on the platform, in addition to nationwide coverage. When ERTV2 eventually launched in April 1976, Euro Republican Television was rebranded as ERTV1. At the same time, the channel began to invest in more new programmes.

After most of the English language audience (specfically in the South) had disappeared to other English language channels on Cablevision, ERTV planned a large-scale revamp of ERTV1 to go live in September 1984, along with a channel rebrand.

In the build up to the new look, the "blue eye" logo began being seen less often, only being used into the news and at closedown, with in-vision continuity and programme slides used more commonly throughout the summer of 1984.

The process of dropping it had began when ERTV 2's "orange eyes" variation was replaced in September 1983 by a new, 3D-heavy ident. By the early 80s, ERTV felt the eye - which had been in use since 1969 with only a change to the text in 1976 - felt dated in a new age of computer generated imagery.

A new chat show would air on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, called The 8 O'Clock Rock with Terrence, hosted by Terrence Atkins, whist Tuesdays & Thursdays saw the launch of Riverside at 8.00 pm, a soap set in the south west of the country, which aimed to be grittier and edgier than Highway to Haven Road, which was shifted from 8.00 pm to an early evening slot at 6.00 pm following what was initially billed as a "fast-paced" 5.30 pm edition of ERTV National News followed by 15 minutes of sports news in Sports World.

This coincided with a new look and new version of the theme music for ERTV National News at 7. Dedicated local news programmes were also launched in the 7.30 pm time slot. Meanwhile, ER Tonight was permanently anchored to the 10.00 pm before moving over to Network 2 as part of said channel's own revamp in September 1987. The debut of Riverside the following night brought a new look to ERTV 1 at 8pm, with the "blue eye" retired after 15 years (last seen into the National News at 7), replaced with a computer generated ident, featuring a blue numeral 1 and a red and green coloured ERTV wordmark underneath.

The first early morning television programme in the country was also launched that morning, Breakfast Time, which was presented by Jeremy Edwards and Anna Thompson. Despite many viewers and the press expecting the programme to be a heavy in-depth rolling news service, Breakfast Time surprised viewers by offering a relaxed and informal atmosphere with a feature heavy lineup.

These changes helped boost ERTV1's ratings, with Riverside generally getting very high ratings for the network, and helped steer it towards once again being the most watched channel in the country.

Daytime programmes also commenced, with Open Air - a television discussion programme, the main programme. There was also daytime repeats of Highway to Haven Road, Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters - which had previously been shown on ERTV 2, British drama series Emmerdale Farm and Crossroads, religious spot Thought for Today, US comedy series, children's programmes and cookery.

ERTV was dealt with a major blow in 1988 when it lost the broadcast rights to programmes such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm, EastEnders and The Bill to the new commercial broadcaster, TV3, who went on air in March 1989. Casualty, Prisoner: Cell Block H and Neighbours also subsequently ended up on TV3 after ERTV 1 had first transmitted them.

In 1991, ERTV began to have discussions about possibly launching a second soap to compliment Highway to Heaven Road and Riverside and replace the British soaps that they had stuggled to replace. One of the reasons was because ERTV staff had reportedly began to dislike The 8 O'Clock Rock with Terrence.

ERTV devised a second new soap, expected to copy the fame of Neighbours & Home and Away, two Australian soaps which found grand success on TV3. The network hired Coronation Street's Mervyn Watson as a producer, alongside various staff from EastEnders, TV3 rival Barcroft & Riverside as scriptwriters, for Gold Beach, launched in September 1992 to replace The 8 O'Clock Rock which greatly upset Terrence Atkins, which led to him defecting to TV3 to host Terrence Tonight beginning in November 1992.

Gold Beach was heavily advertised in the build up to it's launch on 7 September 1992, by both ETV & the media, with the debut attracting a record audience of 20 million viewers. Despite the heavy promotion and initally high ratings, Gold Beach was heavily panned by critics & viewers, with positive reception being hard to find, even to this day, leading to the last episode being broadcast just over a year later on 10 September 1993.

Programmes
See also: List of programmes broadcast by ETV1