Early history
The history of Kuwaiti television started on an unknown date in late 1959 or early 1960. Merchant Murad Behbehani, an agent working for RCA, set up a 100-watt transmitter with a limited schedule consisting of cartoons and feature films. His only goal was to encourage sales of television sets.[1]
Kuwait Television began broadcasting on 15 November 1961, taking over the control of Bahbahani's television station,[1] from the eastern district of Kuwait City.[2] It was the first TV station in the Arabian Peninsula, founded and created by Behbehani, initially broadcasting in black and white for four hours a day. By the early 1970s, it started covering topics related to Israel, which Kuwait doesn't recognize, under the name Know Your Enemy. Broadcasters in other Arab countries refused to cover Israeli developments. At the time, it had among the most advanced television infrastructure in the Arabian region, with a single transmitter comfortable enough to reach the entire country, coupled with that, most Kuwaitis were affluent enough to afford a television set, which corresponded to over 100,000 sets in that period.[3]
It started color television using the PAL system in March 1974,[4] for the first ever round of the Arabian Gulf Cup, from Bahrain. Early broadcasters included Salem Al-Fahd, Reza Faili and Jassim Al-Shehab.[5] In 1978, KTV moved to new, technologically advanced premises. Studios varied between 30 and 800 square meters, the largest of which was used for Iftah Ya Simsim, the Arabic adaptation of Sesame Street.[1]
