TV Koper Capodistria is a Slovene free-to-air television channel based in Koper, Slovenia. Mainly funded by state aid, the channel serves the Italian-speaking minority in Slovenia and Croatia. It can also be received in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. History The channel started transmissions on May 6, 1971, transmitting on Channel 27 on the UHF dial when in Italy there was still no private TV on aerial. The channel had a crucial advantage: it was mostly in colour. This made the channel popular in its coverage area, the Croatian part of Istria and the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It was Yugoslavia's 2nd color station after RTS2. When TV Koper-Capodistria appeared and met with a favorable response in parts of Italy adjacent to Yugoslavia, some enterprising Italians established a network of private transmitters across Italy, breaking the monopoly established by RAI as viewers embraced the channel's diet of cartoons, subtitled movies, sports, popular series, and more internationally oriented news. TV Koper-Capodistria also helped Italy to adopt the PAL color TV standard, as many Italians bought PAL TV sets in order to tune the channel. In 1976, Italy's constitutional court ruled that privately owned, fully commercial stations could be established on Italian soil. As a consequence of this, hundreds of local television stations appeared in the following years, all in color. TV Koper-Capodistria's unique role was over, and advertising revenue began to dry up. Between 1987 and 1990, TV Koper-Capodistria enjoyed a brief resurrection as a major television player. It signed a deal with Silvio Berlusconi, the owner of Italy's three major private networks, that allowed him to operate, but not own the channel, of course. Berlusconi turned the station into an all-sports service, once again making it popular throughout Italy. Viewers from around the country, as well as Yugoslavia, eagerly tuned into sports events that were not available on the other channels, including exclusive coverage of NBA basketball, with legendary commentary by US-born Dan Peterson, who spoke Italian with a charming American accent. But this arrangement did not last long. With pay television on the horizon, Berlusconi decided to end his all-sports channel in 1990. TV Koper-Capodistria was left without any transmitters in Italy and finally became what it was designed to be back in 1971: a regional service primarily intended for the Italian community in Istria. In 2006, in the spirit of the new cooperation between Slovenia