It was the day Greece’s first private TV station—Mega Channel—started broadcasting, breaking the state broadcaster ERT’s monopoly and introducing an entirely new era of programming, style, and competition.
Viewers in Athens first, and soon across the country, tuned their bulky televisions to channel 7 VHF/UHF, assigning the new station to button 4 on their remote controls. The old lineup—ET1, ET2, ET3—now had a fourth entry: MEGA.
The Premiere
At 3 p.m. on 20 November, everything was ready. Mega officially went on air.
The first person to appear on screen was the station’s then–general director, Nikos Skoulas, who opened with a short statement:
“We do not wish to replace ERT but to complement it,” he said, adding that the new channel aimed to provide quality entertainment and objective news coverage.
Immediately after, Mega launched the first foreign series in its history: Space: 1999, a British–Italian sci-fi production filmed between 1975 and 1977.
In 1989, the year 1999—and the idea of entering a new millennium—still felt like a leap into a future where permanent human presence in space seemed almost inevitable.
Mega Hit: The Youth Culture Show
That same afternoon, Mega premiered Mega Hit, a youth-oriented pop-culture show featuring news and videos from global music and cinema.
The presenters were Vicky Maragaki, Nadia Mourouzi, Nikos Patrelakis, Paschalis Plissis, Akis Sakellariou, and Maggy Charalambidou—a lineup that would become familiar to an entire generation.
The Soap Opera Wars
In the late 1980s, Greek viewers were enthralled by the golden age of soap operas.
Series like Dynasty and The Bold and the Beautiful, filled with feuds and power games among wealthy families, had created millions of devoted fans around the world—including Greece.
Mega Channel entered the “soap-opera battle” with Falcon Crest, led by actress Jane Wyman, an Academy Award winner for her performance in Jean Negulesco’s film Johnny Belinda (1948).
As film critic Panagiotis Timogiannakis wrote in TA NEA on 20 November 1989, Wyman “was an actress of serious dramatic ability who dominated the 1945–1955 decade.”
The First Private News Bulletin
“Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. You are watching the first news bulletin of the first day of operation of the first non-state television station—Mega Channel.”
With these words, journalist Liana Kanelli opened the very first newscast of Greece’s private TV era.
Today, a non-state news bulletin feels ordinary—even expected. But in the highly polarized political climate of the late 1980s, it was nothing short of revolutionary.
Vengos, Roger Moore, and Tony Curtis
Right after the news, Mega’s evening entertainment kicked off with Thanasis Veggos, one of Greece’s most beloved comedic actors, starring in Dinos Katsouridis’ film Thanasi, Take Your Gun. The film had won two awards at the 1972 Thessaloniki Film Festival.
The Late-Night Slot
Today we call it “late night.” Back then, it was simply “the midnight slot”—and from day one, Mega dedicated it to two Hollywood heavyweights: Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, with the beloved 1970s TV series The Persuaders! (known in Greece as Oi Antiziloi).
The series had already aired in Greece on the former military-run channel YENED, where it had built a passionate fan base.
Scenes From Our Lives
Depending on which decade one was born in, Mega’s early programming triggers powerful snapshots of childhood or youth.
For today’s forty-somethings, memories of Tarzan, The Dukes of Hazzard (known in Greece simply as “the Dukes”), and the legendary animated series Thundercats are impossible to erase.
