Television history in Croatia: From early pioneers to public viewing

Historical accounts and photographs highlight the early era of television adoption in Croatia. In Slavonski Brod, Ivan Kirhofer, known as Hanzi, was among the first to achieve television reception in 1959. To facilitate this, he and his colleagues had to construct a specialized antenna.

In Bjelovar, archival photographs from the State Archives depict a common social phenomenon of the late 1960s and early 1970s: crowds gathering in the street to watch television sets displayed in shop windows, such as those at the NAMA department store. During this period, television ownership was growing but not yet universal; in 1961, only approximately 1.56 percent of Croatian households owned a receiver, a figure that rose to about 41 percent by 1971.