ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the most distinctive economic, aesthetic, industrial and political features of television under Soviet-type socialism. Covering the history, ideological emphases and main program types of socialist TV, the chapter highlights the extent to which socialist TV was aligned with Western European public broadcasting and actively participated in international exchanges, program trade and cooperations. It ultimately demonstrates that socialist TV is an organic part of an interconnected, global history of TV and an important resource for reconsidering dominant paradigms of television studies as well as stereotyped views of socialist broadcasting as mere propaganda.
