TV World

"It is said that if one would stare at the screen of a closed television, alone, at midnight during a heavy rain, one could see their soul mate."

- Chie Satonaka

Mayonaka TV (マヨナカテレビ, Mayonaka Terebi), also known as the the TV World and the Midnight Channel in English version, is the main setting in Persona 4. It's referred in urban legends in the town of Inaba, telling a rumor about staring into a closed television at midnight, alone during a heavy rain, would see their own soul mate, which is later revealed to be their own Shadows.

The Midnight Channel contains dungeons that materializes the dreams and desires of those trapped inside. Within the dungeons are the Shadows - suppressed feelings and emotions within humans.

Overview
According to Izanami, the so-called "Midnight Channel" is the world of human consciousness. In order to overrun Inaba with shadows, Izanami turned television into a window into that world, then spread the rumors about it to attract the attention of those whom she had given the power to cross into it.

When people appear on the Midnight Channel, it's because their recent mentions on television put them in the public interest. The fact that Tohru Adachi's victims happened to appear on the channel before he threw them into the Midnight Channel where they died was largely coincidental.

Murder Suspects
When Taro Namatame made the same connection and called the police, Adachi (who was already Izanami's pawn) took the call, and made a suggestion in apparent jest that if Namatame was so certain who the future victims would be, he could keep them someplace safe. The result was just what Adachi wanted. Namatame began kidnapping people appearing on the Midnight Channel and putting them into the television world where he thought they'd be safe.

This pattern only reinforced the Investigation Team's assumptions. Their failure to recognize the true nature of the Midnight Channel also nearly drives them to throw Namatame into a television as execution, when his Shadow's image appears on television right in front of them all and gloats about his guilt. In fact, the Investigation Team all saw that because they believed Namatame was guilty, and the Midnight Channel was merely reflecting what was in their thoughts.

Current Status
After the truth was revealed, the Investigation Team arrived in the TV World for one final time against Izanami in order to free their town from her fog forever. After her defeat, Izanami the fog from the Midnight Channel world before she eventually faded away peacefully, revealing a beautiful landscape which Teddie vows to protect. It was revealed that the Shadows attacked the Investigation Team and the initial murder victims because they were comfortable in their clouded delusions and despised any source of truth, and they eventually fell in peace after the temptation was gone.

Trivia

 * The Midnight Channel is much less comlicated than Dark Hour from Persona 3 and Metaverse from Persona 5 in spite of having more dungeons than both of them. However, the dungeons in the TV World are just generic RPG dungeons while the Dark Hour is more complicated and the Metaverse is more symbolic.