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Television in Kosovo was first introduced in 1974. The Radio Television of Pristina was the first Albanian-speaking broadcaster in Kosovo, founded in 1974 following Radio Pristina's founding in 1945. It was forcefully shut down in 1990 by the Yugoslavian government, forbidding the flow of information through Kosovan airwaves during the Kosovo War. In wartime, the information blackout was covered by Radio 21 (in exile via internet radio and the BBC World Service) and Koha Ditore (via its newspaper and an English-language website), while television was under the sole ownership of the Radio Television of Serbia.
In 1999, the Radio Television of Pristina was reformed into the Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK), founded with the help of the European Broadcasting Union (which it awaits membership into).[1] Besides RTK, the end of the war brought along the creation of national private television networks such as Kohavision (a sister to Koha Ditore), RTV21 (expanding from Radio 21), and many others.[2] In the mid-2000s, RTK partnered with IPTV companies like TVALB to expand its coverage to countries in Europe and North America. These efforts would go further in 2009 with RTV21's 21WorldTV cable service, which offered services to Albanians in the United States.[citation needed] For most of Kosovo's history in television, RTK, RTV21, and Kohavision are the most watched broadcasters in the country.[3]:21
The introduction of cable television through ISPs greatly increased the capacity of television coverage starting in the 2010s with companies bringing programming from Albania and foreign channels to Kosovo. According to a 2013 study by the Independent Media Commission, more than half of Kosovo receives their television signal through cable.[3]:18
Below is a list of television networks and channels with national, regional and cable coverage in Kosovo.
