Imperial Holovision

Imperial Holovision, sometimes spelled Imperial HoloVision, abbreviated IHV, was the successor of HoloNet News and one of the largest and most powerful news/entertainment providers in the Galactic Empire. It was respected and trusted by the people, making it one of Emperor Palpatine's most powerful propaganda tools.

In the days of the Republic, the agency was known as HoloNet News, or HNN. At this time, it was just independent enough to be able to show the public some of the government's flaws. It was more blind&mdash;perhaps deliberately so&mdash;to the shortcomings of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's government. Following the outbreak of the Clone Wars (22 BBY), the company was renamed Republic HoloNet News to signal its opposition to the Separatist movement. When Palpatine declared himself Emperor (19 BBY) of the new Galactic Empire, the company was reorganized, given an Imperial warrant, and more or less passed back to its previous management, albeit with a few COMPNOR "observers" added. Apart from this, and the change of its name to Imperial Holovision, very few changes were needed to make it suit Palpatine's needs.

IHV's executives were not on the Imperial government's payroll; they didn't have to be. They were largely holdovers from the fall of the Republic, who were trained to be loyalists as a matter of course. Their allegiance to the Emperor was freely given; it did not have to be purchased. But they were still journalists, and sought a certain amount of autonomy in their reporting. What they wanted was apparently no great sacrifice for the New Order; of its own accord, Imperial Holovision staunchly maintained a pro-Imperial, pro-business, pro-individualist stance, without supporting government protection and supervision of rights. Its reporting style was detailed, sophisticated, and for the most part accurate. Rather than distort the Empire's more questionable policies, it simply ignored them altogether, ensuring that the population at large never even heard about the New Order's atrocities.

After Palpatine largely dismantled the HoloNet to clear the credits for his planned military buildup (19 BBY), the simple logistics of distributing IHV's latest news releases across the Galaxy became a mind-boggling exercise. The company ended up having to spend more credits on collating and distributing its material than on gathering its stories. But the results were worth it; by the height of the New Order, Imperial Holovision was seen on virtually every planet in the Empire.

The Battle of Endor in 4 ABY not only changed the face of the galaxy, but spelled the end for Imperial Holovision as a cohesive entity. The facturing and in-fighting amongst rival Imperial factions and warlords severely distressed the ability for the company to produce information, as week by week, the channels would be flooded with propaganda and counter-propaganda. False reports ran rampant. All this material would stem from "official" sources, since each Moff that desired to influence the news could, because he possessed official Imperial authenticity codes. IHV offices would be barraged with not only trumped and "adjusted" reports, but with demands to shut down certain channels, if not the entire operation, in order to curtail "political bickering and slander".

Thus, in mid-7 ABY, with resources at an all-time low, Imperial Holovision went off the air. The company scattered, with a few significant techs of the staff approaching Darrien Bryant and Tyre Wolf to enroll in their new venture, InterGalactic News.

Source Notes

 * Most of this content was obtained from the Wookieepedia Article of the same name.