McPsychoville Broadcasting Network

The McPsychoville Broadcasting Network (usually referred to as simply ‘the MBN’) has been the dominant force in McPsychovillian media for nearly fifty years. It became the central provider of television, radio and print media in 1992, when the Republic Coalition Party made it a government-sanctioned operation, and has grown greatly since.

History

The MBN was established in 1936 by a group of private investors who simply wanted to break into the comparatively new market for radio news. The first official broadcast went out at 9:00 a.m., on May 11th, 1936; it was a thirty-minute news programme headed by John Constanza, containing news from across the nation. The feed was received by stations in most of McPsychoville’s larger cities, with Cednia City being the headquarters of the MBN.

Since most of the nation either owned or had easy access to radios, the MBN was an exceptionally profitable business; with no current competitors, they were the only choice available for radio listeners. However, as with many monopolies the quality of their product slowly began to decline - the senior executives barely noticed until they were threatened.

In 1944, a rival broadcaster was set up - the National News Network - which, in addition to news, also offered listeners a variety of other entertainments; among these, the very popular ‘Jaw-Jaw’ talk show. The NNN naturally received a lot of initial interest, but the competition between the two companies was fierce. The MBN was granted a commentary licence by the MHAL in December 1944 to broadcast exclusive commentary of their games; in retaliation, the NNN introduced ‘The Forum’, a politically-neutral show that not only had politicians speaking, but also encouraged listeners to ask questions and to debate issues themselves.

The markets were beginning to separate at this time - the MBN, with its sports licence, was appealing to a younger crowd of people, but the NNN had a solid base of listeners. However, it was the MBN who began to diversify; in 1949, they bought out newspapers in both Deadbolt City and Royston Valley, giving them a distinct advantage over the NNN.

The NNN naturally struck back, but it came from a direction the MBN was not expecting - television. Television had only recently come to the shores of McPsychoville, and the NNN took full advantage of the fact that this was an untapped market. Unfortunately, their gamble proved costly - very costly. Televisions were extremely expensive, and the amount the NNN spent on broadcasting equipment was an expense they could not afford without a lot of viewers. The NNN came very closer to bankruptcy, and in the end only clung on by their fingernails - they were no longer a viable competitor.

The MBN, for their part, did not let their standards slip. They expanded in both print and radio media markets - at one point, they owned 80% of all the newspapers in McPsychoville - and ensured a solid financial base before they attempted the jump to television in 1957. The jump was successful; television sets were far cheaper than when the NNN had attempted to make the leap, and so far more McPsychovillians were able to access the new transmissions. MBN TV1 made its first broadcast on November 26th, 1957, and fittingly, it too was a news programme.

However, the new television station ran into problems of its own. At the time, producing shows was expensive, and there were very few companies who wanted to take the risk when there was so little chance of making profit on it. As such, the first few years were tempestuous - game shows proliferated, as they were the cheapest kind of programme to make, which gave the station an unfavourable reputation.

It was 1960 that another competitor arose. The McPsychovillian Television Broadcaster had found backing from companies who were willing to exploit the fledgling televisual market, and these companies were not interested in making game shows. The MTB quickly became preferred for viewers who wanted to watch quality programming, and as such, became very popular.

However, the problem the MTB had was, like the NNN, financial. Compared to the radio and print media markets, television was still small, and while the MTB was popular, the amount of viewers it had was not enough to challenge the MBN overall. Unable to get any further into the market, the MTB closed its doors in 1966, once again leaving the MBN in sole command of the media market.

The MBN had learnt its lesson though. After the MTB closed down, the MBN approached companies with a view to making a more diverse range of programmes; later the same year, MBN TV2 and TV3 debuted - TV3 was a news network, containing documentaries, financial and other such programmes, while TV2 was dedicated to game shows and comedies. TV1 became the more serious of the three channels, featuring dramas and action-based programming. Soon after, TV4 was put into place, which was a sports channel; it also holds the honour of having the highest rated segment in the nation’s history, as more than 75% of the population tuned into TV4 to watch the final game of the Tanguay Titans/London Knights Championship Series on March 3rd, 1992.

In 1991, the MBN offered an olive branch to the Canadian Empire, from which McPsychoville had recently seceded, by offering to broadcast transmissions to mainland Canada - an offer which Canada accepted. It was this action that prompted the government to make the MBN the central media provider, in early 1992.

In modern times the MBN has continued to grow, shedding its unwanted reputation for being an inferior provider of media-based services than others along the way. It still remains privately-owned, despite being government-sanctioned, and one can only imagine that the few, unnamed private investors who founded the company would be proud of their achievements to this date.

Service Overview

Television

MBN TV1 - Main channel, featuring highly-rated programming. Focuses more on serious programmes.
MBN TV2 - Other main channel, which also features high-rated shows. TV2 focuses more on comedic programmes, along with particular game shows.
MBN TV3 - The news network, with hourly broadcasts of news (financial and world alternate).
MBN TV4 - The educational channel, featuring documentaries and scientific programming.
MBN TV5 - The sports channel, which holds licenses from almost all of McPsychoville’s sporting leagues (as well as certain international games).
MBN TV6 - The international network, which is a composite of the transmissions received from other nations.
MBN TVI (not available in McPsychoville) - The international channel which is broadcasted from McPsychoville to other nations who choose to receive it.

Closed Captioning

For all of the above stations (save TVI, for obvious reasons), closed captions are available in a number of languages, primarily French, Latin and Italian. For TV6, English is often available, for certain transmissions are in foreign languages.

Radio

MBN Radio One - A general interest channel, with a blend of music, news, sports and talk shows.
MBN Radio Two - The same as Radio One, though with a greater emphasis on sports.
MBN Radio Three - Dedicated solely to music, while One and Two are general interest channels
MBN Radio Française - French-language broadcasts

Print

While the newspapers run themselves, the MBN still keeps control of a large majority of the nation’s newspapers, owning at least one in every city. Of particular note here is the Deadbolt Sentinel - the largest newspaper that is NOT owned by the MBN.