Notorious for a totalitarian control on media, Turkmenistan has consistently occupied one among the last three spots of the annual Press Freedom Index since its inception in 2006.
Russophone viewers frequently nicknamed the company as "your dead TV" (твой мертвый телевизор).
[10] Writing in 2005, Paul Brummell finds the troika to serve similar content encompassing documentaries about Turkmenistan, music-and-dance concerts, and dubbed foreign films (esp.
[15] In December 2008, Niyazov's successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow signed a decree establishing "Turkmen Owazy" to "promote the art of music and culture of Turkmenistan".
[25] In 2015, citizens were instructed to not use satellite dishes, apparently in order to preserve the aesthetics of the cityscape; critics deemed the policy as a tool of censoring non-state sources.
[28] A cooperation agreement with the Russian Большая Азия (Big Asia) TV channel was signed in late March 2024.
A 2024 AFP report to Turkmenistan reveals that cable television operators are widely used as means of escape from the "boring" nature of state TV.