Afghanistan National Television
Afghan state owned television broadcaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Afghanistan National Television (Dari: تلویزیون ملی Televizion-e Milli-ye Afghanistan, Pashto: ملی تلویزیون Da Afghanistan Milli Televizion) is the state-owned television channel in Afghanistan. It is part of the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) public broadcaster.
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| |
| Country | Afghanistan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Afghanistan Europe North America Asia |
| Headquarters | Kabul |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 720p HDTV |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Radio Television Afghanistan |
| Sister channels | RTA Sport RTA News RTA Education |
| History | |
| Launched | 19 August 1978 (original) 18 November 2001 (relaunch) |
| Closed | 8 July 1998 (original) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | rta |
| Website | rta |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Oqaab | Channel 3 |
History
Construction work started in March 1977 and the first experimental broadcasts started in March 1978.[1] Afghan television was launched on 19 August 1978, Afghan Independence Day, in a ceremony headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki.[2] Since the beginning its broadcasts were in colour using PAL system.[3]
In 1983 three new stations were commissioned in Kandahar (see RTA Kandahar), Jalalabad and Herat (see RTA Herat). On 2 January 1985 the broadcasts started in Jalalabad while a new station in Badakhshan Province finished its construction. On 3 February 1985 a new station opened in Ghazni,[4] while in the same month broadcasts started in Kandahar and Herat.[5] Female presenters were temporarily banned in 1992.[6] They were allowed again in April 1993, though under the condition that they had to wear black veils.[7]
During the Taliban regime, Afghanistan National Television ceased operations when television was banned, and on 8 July 1998 they ordered the destruction of all TV sets.[8][9] During this period, only a station in Badakhshan controlled by the Northern Alliance was allowed to operate, because it was outside of the areas claimed by the Taliban.[10]
After the Taliban were overthrown, television in Afghanistan restarted at 6pm on 18 November 2001,[11] with Miriam Shakebar being the first face seen.[12] The return was marked with a three-hour live broadcast in Pashto and Dari languages, as well as a reading of the Quran, music videos, cartoons, news and interviews. The Kabul station still operated on equipment dating back to the early 70s while its transmitter had a 10-watt reach and didn't cover the whole of Kabul, meaning that the city center was deprived of seeing its return.[13] The station carried movies - they still had a catalog of over 3,000 titles seized from the Taliban, mostly dubbed into Dari.[14] Not all of its video archive survived intact, as two years earlier, 400 tapes (out of a total of 9,000) were destroyed because they countered Islamic values.[15]
In 2019, RTA launched a sister channel to the main station called RTA Sport, which is dedicated to sports content.[16]
Exclusive 2008 speech
RTA became famous worldwide when Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a live speech to the world minutes after dozens of insurgents attempted to assassinate him at a military parade, which was thwarted by the Afghan National Army.[17][18] The scene of the attempt was also broadcast live to RTA viewers in Afghanistan and picked up by the international media.[19]
International availability
Afghanistan National Television became available in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Africa, Asia Pacific, and North America on 5 January 2008. The channel's broadcasting hours were 06:00 to 00:00 (local Afghan time), corresponding to 01:30 to 19:30 UTC; later that year it started broadcasting 24 hours. As of 2018, it is no longer broadcast on the Hot Bird satellite in Europe.[20]
Currently the channel broadcasts on the TürkmenÄlem 52°E / MonacoSAT satellite to viewers in and around Afghanistan and in Europe, and western Asia. It also broadcasts on GSAT-19 for viewers in the Indian subcontinent.[21]