In the Middle East the big difference was the launch of the first telecommunications satellites in the 1980s and 90s like Arabsat. This was combined with the launch of some of the first independent (i.e. non-state) TV enterprises around the same time. This started in Lebanon where the first independent TV news network was launched by a local warlord during the Lebanese Civil War and then proliferated from there. Satellite TV remains the norm for TV in the Middle East to this day despite some attempts to limit it in certain countries over controversies about Al-Jazeera and attempts at state restrictions and stuff like that, but that's all within our 20 year rule.

edit: fixed a sentence