You can access about 8 TV channels in Iran, 5 of them are the national channels with News, TV Series, Movies and Children's program (yes each channel produces programs for almost everybody). A few additional channels have been added recently; The Khabar News Channel, Quran TV and a handful of Educational channels featuring programs for children and adults.
Entertaining 75 million Iranians, over a third of them under 30, is impossible with this handful of government funded channels. This is where satellite dishes come into the picture. Owning a dish has been illegal since the revolution, however like all other laws that have been bent over the past quarter century nowadays almost every household owns at least one satellite dish. In Tehran most household enjoy their two dished, one aimed at European satellites and another for Iranian and Middle Eastern programs.
The LA based channels feature TV series, movies and music videos from before the revolution all the way to freshly(?) produced works of the flocks of "exiled" artists. Original programs produced by these channels often suffer underfunded production quality and are aesthetically mundane, at times you are simply watching some guy in a tie behind his desk trying too hard to explain his method of toppling the Iranian regime. Some extreme cases like the old man going by the alias Hakha, going as far as announcing the date of his arrival in Tehran and planning out his one man koodeta, provided some serious laughing material for Iranian public and also helped Iranian TV to effortlessly produce a few comic shows.
The catch is that while state has no right to investigate one's private space if they happen to "stumble" upon your dish and receiver they are allowed to seize it. Every few years when some distraction is desired by the government there is a raid and a good number of dished are collected, likely to be later circulated into the market.
Now sit back and Enjoy flipping through the channels.
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