Cultural Factors and Their Effect in the Use of Overseas Media

Iran is a multi-ethnic society with a variety of languages and religions. Shia Islam and the Persian language are the country's official religion and language, respectively. Iranian radio and television are state-owned, and their national networks carry all their programmes in Persian. Due to the inferior status accorded non-Persian, cultures and languages, shared ethnicity, historical background and language have created new links between Iranian citizens in the border provinces and neighboring countries. This paper is focused on the popularity of satellite TV viewing among Azerbaijani Iranians in the north-western province of Ardebil, especially the audience for satellite broadcasts from the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, with which Ardebil shares a border, and Turkey. A survey conducted by the author indicated that 95.1 percent of the households with satellite TV choose Turkey and Azerbaijani channels; and 60 percent of them spend more than three hours a day watching these programmes. Nearly seventy percent of the viewers believe that common cultural aspects are more effective in choosing those channels.