East Asia Broadcast Union

East Asia Broadcast Union
The East Asia Broadcast Union (formerly the Broadcasting Union of Japan) is a collective union for broadcasting, designed to bring Asia closer together. Its current members are Chugoku, the Japanese Socialist Republic, Laos, South Korea, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. By joining the EABU, your nation, alongside many other nations, will broadcast the same channels, albeit with translations into each countries respective language. The main channel upon joining would be EATV (formerly EastAsiaTV), alongside EATV 2, EATV 3, EATV+ and EATV Kids. Some channels could be locally selected, but only a few.

Founding
The EABU was founded in 1976 as the Broadcasting Union of Japan to bring countries, no matter their ideology, position on a subject or anything else thinkable, together to broadcast more intuitive programming to represent all happenings in Asia and make TV management easier for countries across the region. The founders were Chugoku and Aomori (see Hokkaido page for explanation).

1976-1981
The BUJ lasted for 5 years between 1976 and 1981. In this period, in 1977, Hokkaido joined the BUJ, and later in 1979, the JSU would join the union. The union would later be rebranded to the EABU when on August 17th 1981, South Korea would join the union.

1981-1999 (growth period)
Between 1981 and 1999, the EABU experienced its largest period of growth yet. In 1982, Thailand (who would later leave) joined the union followed by Vietnam in 1985. In 1989, Cambodia applied for membership, however its joining ended up being delayed to 1990. In 1991, Laos was seen into the union, followed by Singapore in 1995, Myanmar in 1997 and Malaysia in 1999.

1999-present (decline)
Since 1999, the EABU has been on a steady decline. Though some countries have joined throughout the period, they all have not and did not contributed to gaining old levels. For example, in 2001, Bangladesh would join the union. followed by Myanmar taking leave in 2003 due to internal issues and Thailand taking leave in 2005. In 2009, Nepal would formally leave the union and finally in 2023, Hokkaido would decide to leave.