Channel 9 (Greece)


Channel 9 is a Greek television channel that broadcasts in the region of Attica. Despite being declared to be a news-based channel, the majority of the channel's programming since the early 2010s, consists of telemarketing.

History

In 1992, the channel was launched as Tile Tora, founded by journalist Gregoris Michalopoulos. In January 2000, the channel was bought by Stathis Tsotsoros and was renamed POLIS TV or POLIS for short; a radio counterpart was established the same year. Michalopoulos became the channel's vice president. In 2004, the channel was renamed TV Cosmopolis or TVC for short. In 2005, the channel changed ownership again, and was temporarily renamed back to POLIS in preparation for an overhaul. In October 11, 2005, a fire almost completely ruined formerly sister station Alpha TV's studios in Agios Ioannis Rentis, where the regional station was housed anew, along with some archive material; the scheduled for the end of the month rebrand and new programming of the station were halted, with its already existing programming broadcasting from Alpha's headquarters in Kantza. On December 2005, the station was renamed to Channel 9, broadcasting from the studios in Rentis, after another deadline for December 5 was expired. The then new programming of the station, featuring primarily news bulletins, was undertaken by journalist Nikos Evangelatos, who was at the same time hosting the news program Apodeikseis on Alpha. It hasn't changed its main idents since then. In 2010, the channel started focusing on economy shows, with Panagiotis Mpousmpourelisa at the head.
Between 2004 and 2006, the channel was infamous for strikes by its crew and its executives firing employees. The channel would slowly start constantly airing replays of other shows, and there would be a potential shutdown of the station. At the end of 2006, journalist Nikos Evangelatos was forced to resing, following improper financial handling, firing all of the station's 390 employees. Since then, Channel 9 has gone through economic redevelopment, something that has managed to progress slowly into the new digital age.
In February 2007, Channel 9 started broadcasting live from its website. In December 2013, Channel 9 was added to Cosmote TV. It was removed from the service in November 2018.

Ownership

Until mid-2006, journalist Nikos Evangelatos held a significant share in the station. Behind the journalist was businessman Dimitris Kontominas, and only because Greek law at the time did not allow individual ownership of more than one television channel and two radio stations. The law has since changed and Dimitris Kontominas is the majority shareholder.
The channel has several times changed ownership in its history. The first company to operate the station was the Tiletora Anonymous Radio Television Company, which was established on February 6, 1992. A year later, the operation of the channel under the 19205/E license of local signal in Attica was legalized, and on March 20, 1998, the Ministry for the Press issued a decision, according to which, the channel was re-legalized as a regional one. Since its inception, the channel's headquarters would be initially located at Lycabettus St. 17 and later on Ilias Iliou St. 15, until mid-2001, when it was moved to Kallithea.
On June 30, 2000, the organization's statute was altered, by adding the purpose of producing films for the needs of the channel, and a few months later, due to a change of ownership, the name of the organization was changed to Polis Anonymous Television Company. Journalist Petros Diplas became its president. In mid-2004, the station was sold and the name of the previous operator of the station changed to Mediterranean Television Enterprises SA, which shut down one year later. On May 25, 2004, Radio Television Operations Cosmopolis TVC SA was established, as a conversion of the same-named joint venture and which took over again the television channel, purchased from Polis SA. By mid-2005, the major shareholder would appear to be Stathis Tsotsoros, president of the directors' board and chief executive on Alpha TV and Channel 9.
On October 3, 2005, the organization was last renamed as Channel Nine - 9 Anonymous Company, and the station was transferred to Pavlou Melas St. 26 in Rentis. At the same time, it started to maintain a branch office at Kontoi St. 11-13, also in Renti, where the former production offices of its sister channel, Alpha TV, were housed.
In late 2010, the organization's statute was altered, with an expansion of activities, while two years later, the station's headquarters were transferred to the old facilities of Alpha TV in Paiania.

Programming

Channel 9’s programming originally was based on newscasts, original productions and cartoons. The channel had nine daily newscasts to match its name. As of 2010, the channel’s news operations consisted of a daily economic zone, the main newscast, a sign language newscast, a sports newscast, and a newscast from Al Jazeera English translated into Greek from 2009 to 2013, a first for Greek television. Other programming would include children’s series, foreign films from Village Roadshow and original productions, mainly medical ones. Until 2007 the majority of the channel's programming consisted of cartoons from Nickelodeon. Channel 9 has also aired sports events such as Bundesliga, Eredivisie, the Scotland Premier League, NBA, Serie A, Coupe de France and Skoda Foot Volley 2006, as well as programming from MTV Europe and productions for its sister channel, Alpha TV, since its change of ownership in 2000. Currently, almost all of its programming in the daytime consists of telemarketing.
Various local stations in Greece, including Star Central Greece in Lamia, NET TV in western Peloponnesus, the ORT in Peloponnesus, Kriti TV in Crete, Super B in western Greece, Delta TV in Thraki, Center TV in south Macedonia, Cosmos TV and Dion TV in central Macedonia, In-Channel in Epirus, New TV in eastern Macedonia, Flash TV in western Macedonia and TV 10 in Thessaly, have aired a significant part of programming from Channel 9, as part of a project formerly known as POLIS Net. Polis Net Consultants, the company behind the project, was established on September 28, 2000. Stathis Tsotsoros, Vasilis Vasilogamvros and Petros Diplas have been its presidents in the past.
Channel 9 started airing Nickelodeon cartoons, formerly known as the staples of the channel's programming, in late 2003, around one year after Alpha Digital, a digital satellite pay television platform by sister channel Alpha TV, was discontinued due to low amount of subscribers and financial problems. Alpha Kids was one of its premium channels, and would air throughout the enirety of its everyday schedule Nickelodeon shows. No new Nickelodeon shows were bought after its closure.
Initially, Nickelodeon bumpers from the 90's would air in-between commercial breaks, similarly to other counterparts of Nickelodeon, such as Nickelodeon Russia. In 2005, after the channel was rebranded to Channel 9, the idents in the block were changed to the ones used in the United States counterpart at that time, till early 2008, when the block was discontinued. Ants, Ants, Ants, a short about ants playing hula hoops in the ant hill, and Zoom, a short animated by the illustrator of the wordless book it's based on, Istvan Banyai, would also air during commercial breaks.
During airings of SpongeBob SquarePants on Channel 9 in November 2007, the National Council for Radio and Television started investigations regarding a claim made by one of its members, in which he says that "the show contains violent scenes for children."

Legacy

A telemarketing show promoting a camera called "L'espion" by Oikos Missias which aired on Channel 9 and TV 10, one of its co-operating channels at the time, gained attention in the mid-2010s, as it was featured in a reaction video made by popular YouTuber 2J, which has surpassed 2 million views. In the video, he makes fun of the supposedly realistic acting and the script.