Television Dependency in Independent Kazakhstan

Abstract

With little written on media in this oft-forgotten part of Asia, this article seeks to analyse a model of television development within a key post-Soviet state. The research found that there was little programme production or adaptation in Kazakhstan but much done by Russian television on which the former’s channels were dependent. The Russian programming was either broadcast directly, relayed in part by domestic channels or comprised individual programmes purchased for use locally. Thus this article argues that Russia acts as a sub-franchisor in redistributing global creative products, exploiting commonalities in the regional geolinguistic market created through its past communist imperialism. A national policy placing increasing emphasis on Kazak-ization of media has triggered demand for ‘localized’ programming in this transitional Central Asian economy. Yet given the market imperatives of privatized media, this has encouraged the dubbing and adaptation of successful regional and global programmes formats in Russian, rather than production of local originals. In doing so, Kazakhstan may be discerned to be supporting Russia in its role as a semi-periphery country in global cultural production and export, thus mediating capitalism within its non-European region of transitional economies.