About IRIB Nasim

IRIB Nasim

IRIB Nasim is a free-to-air Persian-language entertainment channel operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iran's state broadcaster, and based in Tehran. In IRIB's own listings it is described as the fun and entertainment channel, and its name is explained in Persian as an acronym formed from words meaning fun, entertainment, memories and competitions. Where most IRIB channels were created for news, education, religion, sport or drama, Nasim was created for cheerfulness itself: comedy, light entertainment, competitions, talk and programmes designed to make a family audience laugh and take part.

Nasim is one of the newer national channels in Iran. It began as a Tehran-only experiment, grew within a year into a national 24-hour service, and then became nationally known above all for Khandevaneh, the comedy and talk format hosted by Rambod Javan that introduced regular stand-up comedy to Iranian television audiences and turned Nasim from a new channel into a household name. Its history is therefore both a channel history and the history of a particular kind of Iranian popular entertainment finding a permanent home on state television.

Ownership and place within IRIB

Nasim is owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, known in Iran as Seda o Sima. IRIB is the state-controlled corporation that holds the monopoly of domestic radio and television broadcasting in Iran, is headquartered at Jaame Jam on Valiasr Street in Tehran, and is headed by a director-general appointed directly by the Supreme Leader. A supervisory council drawn from the three branches of government oversees the organisation under Article 175 of the Constitution. Nasim operates entirely inside that structure, alongside general channels such as IRIB TV1, TV2 and TV3 and specialist services for documentary, health, children, teenagers, the Quran, sport and drama.

Within that family, Nasim's assignment is distinctive. IRIB already had channels that carried comedy and entertainment as part of a mixed schedule, notably TV3, but it had no national channel whose whole identity was entertainment. Nasim filled that gap. Its later importance to IRIB can also be seen in the ultra-high-definition service: when IRIB developed its 4K channel, known as Faratar or IRIB UHD, the entertainment mission of that service was assigned as a channel of the Nasim network, precisely because Nasim had become IRIB's recognised home for fun and lively programming.

Launch: test broadcasts in Tehran, then a national channel

Nasim went on air for the first time on 17 September 2013 as a pilot or test service in Tehran only. Contemporary and later accounts agree on the staged nature of the launch. At first the channel was available only in the capital, and a selection of its programmes was also shown in the afternoons on provincial networks so that viewers outside Tehran could sample what the new service offered. The channel was officially established on 7 May 2014, and on 24 December 2014 it began airing nationally as a free-to-air channel broadcasting 24 hours a day.

The staged launch is a recurring pattern for IRIB's newer specialist channels, which were often tested in Tehran before national rollout on the digital terrestrial system, and Nasim followed it closely. The timing also matters. The first season of Khandevaneh began on Nasim on 9 June 2014, while the channel was still in its test and early phase and still principally a Tehran service. In other words, the programme that would define Nasim arrived almost at the channel's birth, before national distribution, and helped create the audience that the national launch then served.

The meaning of the name Nasim

In Persian, nasim means a breeze, and channel descriptions present the name as bringing a message of joy and vitality. At the same time, the Persian name is explained as an acronym for Neshat, Sargarmi, Yadegari, Mosabegheh — fun, entertainment, memories and challenges or competitions. Both readings point in the same direction. Nasim was not named for a place, a subject or an institution, but for a mood and a mixture: light programmes, nostalgic material, games and competitions. That branding separates it from IRIB channels named for their content, such as the documentary, health and education services, and helps explain why its schedule has always ranged widely across comedy, music, talk, art and contests rather than settling on a single format.

Khandevaneh and the arrival of stand-up comedy

Khandevaneh, whose title combines the Persian words for laughter and watermelon, is the programme most closely identified with Nasim. Directed and hosted by the actor and director Rambod Javan, it combined talk-show interviews with famous guests, live music and stand-up comedy, performed before a studio audience whose laughter and applause were part of the programme's atmosphere. Financial Tribune reporting on the show noted that, although some Iranians had previously attempted stand-up, the genre was not widely known to the public until Javan introduced it routinely in Khandevaneh by inviting comedians and satirists to perform in front of the audience and the cameras.

The show proved a huge hit, reaching especially younger viewers, and its stand-up competitions gave public prominence to a generation of Iranian comics. At the end of one season Javan asked viewers to keep laughing for 25 seconds every day, saying that society needed joviality and that laughing is good for health. Khandevaneh ran through multiple seasons, with its eighth season airing on Nasim from 9 November 2021 after the disruption of the coronavirus period. Analysis of Nasim in Iranian media has credited the Khandevaneh format with popularising stand-up comedy in Iran in a serious and professional way for the first time, and with promoting books and reading through the stories of guests' lives. For a directory profile, the central fact is simple: Nasim is the channel that carried Khandevaneh, and Khandevaneh is the main reason Nasim became famous.

Dorehami and the talk-show tradition

Nasim's second signature format was Dorehami, a gathering-style talk and entertainment programme associated with Mehran Modiri, one of Iran's best-known comedy actors and directors. IRIB programme listings date Dorehami to 2016–2018 as an original programme of the period. Where Khandevaneh was built around a host, a studio audience and stand-up, Dorehami drew on Modiri's long-established comic persona and on conversation, performance and humorous observation of everyday life. Channel programme lists also describe Dorehami as a gathering spot for sharing laughs and heartfelt stories.

Together, Khandevaneh and Dorehami gave Nasim two different but complementary centres of gravity: an energetic, youth-leaning comedy show and a more conversational celebrity format. Iranian commentary on the channel has noted the later closure or separation of some of its most watched programmes, including Khandevaneh, Dorehami and the book programme Ketab-baz, describing how decisions about those programmes were not always wholly within the Nasim network's own control. That history is part of the channel's story: Nasim built its reputation on a small number of very popular formats, and changes to those formats were felt by viewers as changes to the channel itself.

Other programming on the channel

Beyond its two best-known shows, Nasim's schedules have included a wide range of light and cultural entertainment. Channel programme descriptions list Abrang, meaning watercolour, a creative show about the artistry of painting; Haavang, a blend of cooking and cultural exploration; Shabi Ba Abdi, evening talks; Shekar Abad, a journey through nature and adventure; and Vitamin Kh, a health-focused programme about wellness and lifestyle. Competitions have also been a recurring element, consistent with the competitions element in the channel's name, and Iranian commentary notes that competitions on Nasim, in the form of specially produced programmes, brought young talents into acting and singing, some of whom went on to professional work.

The channel has also been credited, in the same commentary, with promoting reading and books, and with formats whose ideas were later taken up elsewhere, including on home entertainment platforms. Nasim's clips have circulated widely on social media, with parts of its programmes described as going viral online and receiving very positive feedback. That second life on social platforms is characteristic of entertainment channels of Nasim's generation: a joke, a stand-up routine or a musical moment made for terrestrial television could reach a much larger and younger audience again as a short clip.

Audience and cultural significance

Nasim was designed for a broad family audience, but reporting on its flagship programmes repeatedly stresses its appeal to young people. Khandevaneh was successful, in Financial Tribune's account, because it touched on issues appealing to youth and presented stand-up, live music and talk in a fast, participatory studio format unlike the more formal presentation typical of state television. In a country where IRIB holds a broadcasting monopoly but competes for attention with foreign satellite channels and, increasingly, social media and streaming, a channel that could make younger viewers choose a domestic service voluntarily had an importance beyond its schedule.

Culturally, Nasim tested how much lightness Iranian state television could carry. Its stated philosophy, in Iranian commentary, is cheerfulness, entertainment and healthy laughter within Iranian culture. That meant comedy and music presented under IRIB's broadcasting standards, by familiar Iranian performers, in Persian, for Iranian families. The channel's history shows both the possibilities and the limits of that formula: formats could become national talking points and launch careers, while the departure or closure of flagship programmes could leave a gap that new formats struggled to fill.

Distribution and availability

Nasim is a free-to-air channel broadcast across Iran on the digital terrestrial system and available worldwide through satellite and online live streaming, in Persian, 24 hours a day. Its national terrestrial availability dates from 24 December 2014; before that date it was a Tehran pilot whose programmes were sampled on provincial networks. As with other IRIB national channels, it forms part of the standard channel line-up received in Iranian homes without a subscription, and its programmes are also followed through clips and official online presentations.

Viewers should not confuse Nasim with similarly purposed sister services. IRIB TV3 also carries comedy and entertainment for younger audiences as part of a mixed schedule with sport, and the Faratar 4K service carries entertainment in ultra-high definition under the Nasim network's wing. Nasim itself remains the standard-definition and high-definition national entertainment channel at the centre of that group, in the Persian language, from Tehran.

Nasim today

IRIB Nasim remains listed by IRIB among its domestic general channels as the fun and entertainment channel, broadcasting from Tehran in Persian. Its defining facts are well documented: tested in Tehran from 17 September 2013, officially established on 7 May 2014, national and 24-hour from 24 December 2014, and identified nationally with Khandevaneh from June 2014 and with Dorehami from 2016. Even as individual programmes come and go, that identity has endured: Nasim is IRIB's dedicated place for comedy, light entertainment, competitions and joyful programming, created to prove that the state broadcaster could offer fun as a channel in its own right, not only as an interval between other kinds of programmes.