Editing Prime time (section)

==Europe==
[[File:European peak times.png|thumb|right|300px|Hours of start or end for peak times in selected European countries (notice lateness of Southern countries)]]
===Austria===
In [[Austria]], prime time usually starts at 20:15 after the news broadcast of [[ORF 1]].  Even though [[ORF2]] has its news from 19:30 to 20:00, they also start broadcasting prime time content at 20:15.  The same applies for nearly all channels seated in Austria or [[Germany]] that are broadcast in Austria.

===Bosnia and Herzegovina===
In [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], prime time starts at 20:00 and finishes at 22:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast (''Dnevnik'') at 19:00 and followed by a late night newscast (''Vijesti'') at 22:00.

===Bulgaria===
In [[Bulgaria]], prime time starts at 20:00 every day (including weekends). Usually, the programmes aired are Bulgarian or Turkish series and reality shows, followed by a late newscast. The [[Bulgarian National Television]] broadcasts [[Po sveta i u nas|''Po Sveta i u Nas'']] at 20:00 and shows cultural and political programmes from 21:00 to 22:00, with series and late-night news following at 23:00.

===Croatia===
In [[Croatia]], prime time starts between 20:00 and 20:15. Croatian public broadcaster [[Hrvatska radiotelevizija]] broadcasts a daily newscast from 19:00 to 20:00.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}} Also, many private broadcasters have daily newscasts either before or after the HTY newscast, at around 20.05, followed by the start of their own prime time. Many broadcasters without daily newscasts start their prime time at 20:00. Prime time generally ends between 22:00 and 23:00, followed by the late night edition of the network newscast and adult-oriented programming.

===Denmark===
In [[Denmark]], prime time starts at 20:00.

===Finland===
In [[Finland]], prime time starts at 21:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 20:30.

===France===
In [[France]] prime time starts at 21:10 (20:35 in the 1980s, 20:50 in the 1990s and 2000s, 21:05 in the 2010s).

===Georgia===
In [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], prime time starts between 18:45 and 20:00 and generally ends at midnight.  However, on Friday night / Saturday morning, prime time usually continues until 1:00.

===Germany===
At 20:00 each evening, [[Das Erste]] (The First), [[Germany]]'s oldest public television network, airs the country's most-watched news broadcast, the main edition of the ''[[Tagesschau (German TV series)|Tagesschau]]'', which is also simulcast on most of its other specialist and regional channels (The Third).  The conclusion of the bulletin 15 minutes later marks the beginning of prime time, as it has since the 1950s.  In consequence, most other channels—public and private alike—also choose to start their prime time at 20:15.  In the 1990s, the commercial channel [[Sat.1]] suffered a significant loss of audience share when it tried moving the start of its prime time to 20:00.

===Greece===
In [[Greece]], prime time runs from 21:00 (usually following the news) to midnight.

===Hungary===
In [[Hungary]], prime time on weekdays on the two big commercial stations ([[RTL (Hungarian TV channel)|RTL]] and [[TV2 (Hungarian TV channel)|TV2]]) starts at 19:00 with game shows, tabloid, and docu-reality programmes.  At 21:00, two popular soap operas air: ''Barátok közt'' and ''Jóban Rosszban'', which follows at 21:30.  American and other series, movies, talk-shows, and magazines run until 23:30.  The prime-time lineup is preceded by daily news programmes at 18:30.  At weekends, prime time begins at 19:00, with blockbuster movies and television shows.

Before 15 March 2015, the public television station [[M1 (TV channel)|M1]] began its prime time with a game show at 18:30, which was followed by the daily news programme ''Híradó'' at 19:30. After the news, the channel broadcast American and other series, talk shows, magazines, and news programmes until 22:00, after which came the daily news magazine ''Este'' and the late edition of ''Híradó''.

From 15 March 2015, [[Duna (TV channel)|Duna]] began broadcasting all of the entertainment programming transferred to it from that date from M1, meaning that prime time on Duna now begins at 18:00, starting with the simulcast of the 18:00 edition of Híradó from the newly re-launched news channel, M1.

===Iceland===
In [[Iceland]], prime time starts at 19:30. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:00.

===Ireland===
In [[Ireland]], prime starts at 18:30 and ends at 22:00.

===Italy===
In [[Italy]], prime time (called "prima serata") starts between 21:00 and 21:45 (main channels, including RTV) and ends between 23:30 and 00:30.  On Friday and Saturday night, some shows last until 06:30–07:00.  It usually follows news and, on some networks (like [[Rai 1]] and [[Canale 5]]), a slot called "access prime time". Shows, movies, and sport events are usually shown during prime time.

===Netherlands===
Much like in Germany, prime time in the [[Netherlands]] usually begins at 20:30 in order to not compete with [[Nederlandse Omroep Stichting|Nederlanse Omroep Stichting]]'s flagship 20:00 newscast.

===Norway===
In [[Norway]], prime time starts at 19:45. On the [[NRK1]] channel it is preceded by the daily newscast ''[[Dagsrevyen]]'' at 19:00. Locally, prime time is called {{lang|no|beste sendetid}} ({{lit|best time for broadcasting}}).

===Poland===
In [[Poland]], prime time starts around 20:00 (sometimes 20:30). On [[TVP1]], it is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:30.  On [[TVN (Polish TV channel)|TVN]], the newscast is aired at 19:00, followed by the newsmagazine ''Uwaga'' at 19:50 (weekdays) or 19:45 (weekends), and then the soap opera ''[[Na Wspólnej]]'' at 20:05 (Monday to Thursday) or 20:00 (Friday to Sunday), various movies on Fridays, serials or films (winter and summer) on Saturdays, and programmes or films (winter and summer) on Sundays.  On [[Polsat]], the news is aired at 18:50, followed by the sitcom ''[[Świat według Kiepskich]]'' at 19:30.

===Russia===
In [[Russia]] television prime time is between 19:00 and 23:00 on working days and from 15:00 to 01:00 on holidays.
On radio stations there are morning, day and evening prime times. The most common division:
morning—6:30 to 10:00;
day—~12:00 to 14:00;
evening—16:00 to 21:00.

===Slovakia===
Public television in [[Slovakia]] consists of two channels; on the main channel ([[Jednotka]]) prime time starts at 20:10, and on the second one (Dvojka) prime-time programming starts at 20:00. The two biggest private broadcasters set the start of prime-time programming at 20:20 ([[Markíza]]) and 20:30 ([[TV JOJ]]). Generally, however, prime time is considered to be from 20:00 to 23:00.

===Slovenia===
In [[Slovenia]], prime time, the period in which the most-watched shows are broadcast, is from 8:00{{nbsp}}pm to 11:00{{nbsp}}pm. It is preceded by daily newscasts; Dnevnik RTV SLO (7:00{{nbsp}}pm – 8:00{{nbsp}}pm) on TV SLO 1, 24ur (6:55{{nbsp}}pm – 8:00{{nbsp}}pm) on POP TV, Svet na Kanalu A (6:00{{nbsp}}pm – 7:00{{nbsp}}pm; 7:50{{nbsp}}pm–8:0pm), and Danes (7:30{{nbsp}}pm – 8:00{{nbsp}}pm) on Planet TV.

===Spain===
In [[Spain]], prime time refers to the time period in which the most-watched shows are broadcast. Prime time in Spain starts quite late when compared to most nations as it runs from 22:30 till 01:00. Most news programmes in Spain air at 21:00 for an hour and prime time follows. However, due to fierce competition, especially among the private stations prime time has even been delayed until 23:00. Most channels are delaying prime time in order to protect their top shows from sporting events.

In the 1990s, prime time in Spain began at 21:00, moving to 21:30 in the latter half of the 1990s and 22:00 in the early 2000s. Commercial broadcaster [[LaSexta]] and the second channel from the Public broadcasting [[La 2 (Spanish TV channel)|La 2]] have attempted to shift prime time back to 21:30 in 2006 and Spring 2007, but these attempts have been unsuccessful. Fellow public channel [[La 1 (Spanish TV channel)|La 1]] also tried to pull prime time back to 21:00 in early 2015, to no avail.

The lateness in the start of prime time in Spain is also due to [[Spanish language|Spanish]] culture. Spanish people generally work from 09:00–14:00 and then from 17:00–20:00 as opposed to the 09:00–17:00 which is common in other countries. The popular late-night show ''[[Crónicas marcianas]]'' during the late 1990s–2000 also helped to extend prime time well into the early hours with the show being watched by a share of 40%, despite finishing at 02:00.

Spain might also be unique in that it has a second prime time, running from 14:30–17:00 which coincides with the [[siesta|extended Spanish lunch break]]. Shows airing in the secondary prime time period on many occasions beat those prime-time shows at night on a daily basis. The second prime time occurs only on weekdays, though and the slot is usually filled with ''[[The Simpsons]]'', [[news]], [[soap opera]]s and [[talk show]]s.

===Sweden===
In [[Sweden]], prime time starts at 20:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:30 and local news at 19:50.

===Ukraine===
In [[Ukraine]], prime time ({{langx|uk|прайм-тайм, найкращий час}}) runs from 18:30 to 21:30 on working days and from 15:00 to 01:00 on holidays.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.itk.ua/ua/page/faq| title = FAQ / Дослідження телевізійної аудиторії / Діяльність / ИТК - Индустриальный Телевизионный Комитет}}</ref>

===United Kingdom===
In the [[United Kingdom|UK]], prime time (also known as '''peak time''') runs from 19:00 to 23:00.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/itc_publications/codes_guidance/programme_code/section_4.asp.html|title=Regulator Archives|access-date=28 July 2016}}</ref>