On February 24, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, which plunged Europe into the dark times of World War II.

As the first information about the outbreak of war appeared in the early morning hours and Slovakia began to wake up until the black morning, so did the number of viewers looking for information on television, Mediaboom.sk reports.

While commercial televisions Markiza, Joj and the news net TA3 started the information service from 6.00 in their early news blocks, the outbreak of the war was ignored by the public RTVS (STV), which came with the first information an hour and a half later.

It was last to react to the war conflict when from 6.00 instead of special news it broadcast a rerun of Women's Club, moreover, without any additional information about extraordinary events, at least via a text scroll.

RTVS started with the first news at 7.30 , according to its regular schedule. After an hour, it continued with a travel documentary and the series Step by Heaven. It offered another information service an hour and a half later.

TA3 and Markíza in particular brought a constant news service at this time.

Markíza turned to the news broadcast Teleráno, which shot it to a share of 31.1% in the commercial target, at the same time after 8.30 it broadcast the first Extraordinary News, which it aired until 10.00. With it, it achieved an above-average share in the commercial target of 28.8%. RTVS, meanwhile, broadcast the documentary and series.

After the fiasco with the morning broadcast of a public broadcaster at the time of the war in Europe, the controversial head of its intelligence, Vahram Chuguryan, filed his resignation.

Later in the day, all television stations turned their broadcasts into special news.

TA3, which reached an average all-day market share of 7% in the universal 12+ target, recorded extraordinary viewership on the first day of the war in Ukraine. It was more than double the previous day.

During Thursday's broadcast, it reached high market shares of 12-17% in the 12+ group from the morning until 15.00, and then moved around seven to ten percent until the start of the main news. The average TA3 is at the level of two percent. It was also high during the day in the commercial target with shares of about 7-15%.

Prvé Televízny noviny Markízy achieved the highest viewership at 17.00, which stretched for an hour, and they reached a share of up to 32.5% in the commercial demo. On STV1, the previous extended RTVS Zpravy reached a share of 18.6% in the universal target from 15.30 to 17.00.

Among the main news outlets, JOJ’s Televízne noviny was watched by a total of 603.000 viewers with a share of 26.6% in the 12+ demo, with a commercial rating of 11.3% with a share of 30%.

This was followed by TV JOJ News, which the television started extraordinarily at 19.00, with a total of 490.000 viewers watching them with a share of 21.6%. The RTVS news was watched by a total of 363.000 viewers with a share of 17.4% in total viewers.

After hours of extraordinary news broadcasting, Markiza prepared a special evening show, modeled on the corona specials from spring 2020. The guests of Extraordinary TN in primetime were, among others, the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová or the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Ivan Korčok.

The evening special of Markíza did not attract many viewers, getting a rating of 6.7% in the commercial demo with a below-average share of 17.6%.

In total, half the number of viewers watched it compared to the main television reports; on average, 312.000 viewers watched the special in the universal goal with a share of 14.2%.

Markiza thus failed to beat the strongest series of the competition, Hospital.

JOJ also reacted to the extraordinary situation in the evening broadcast, when instead of the planned debate On the Edge it broadcast a special issue with Ivan Korčok dedicated to the situation in Ukraine. It reached the same number of viewers as the evening special of Markiza - a share of 18.8%; in the commercial demo, the share reached 16.8%.