Botswana Television (also known as BTV and Botswana TV) is the national broadcaster in
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
. Botswana's first national television service started in 2000 following a 1997 government decision.
The station delivers thirteen hours of local and international programmes daily on weekdays and 13 hours of programming on weekends.
Programming
Botswana Television usually offers local content during its run. Shows like Pula Power, Flava Dome and Mokaragana aim to entertain Batswana nationwide through popular music. The TV drama, Pelokgale encourages Batswana to stop Gender Based Violence. News is also broadcast daily.
History
It was launched on 31 July 2000, BTV has established itself in Botswana's viewing habits.
The children's programme "Mantlwaneng" was a leading part of a fledgling BTV when it launched. Its child stars,
Marang Molosiwa, Rea Kopi, Phenyo Mogampane and StaXx have gone onto careers based on this early experience.
Botswana Television started its new offer of channels on October 2, 2022. The change coincided with the switch-off of analogue terrestrial signals in the country. The new channels are BTV 1 (entertainment), BTV 2 (education) and BTV News.
Approach
The station aims to provide at least 60% local content to meet the diverse needs of Botswana. It seeks to align its strategy with the national vision, Vision 2016. The majority of Batswana are young people and Botswana has diverse cultural and language groups.
BTV is the first station in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and the second in the world after
ITN (UK-based
Independent Television News
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
) to fully use
digital technology Digital technology may refer to:
* Application of digital electronics
* Any significant piece of knowledge from information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange a ...
.
Its signal is carried on the
Intelsat 20
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
with a significant
footprint
Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...
, which covers the whole country, and most of the
Southern African Development Community
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana.
Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
(SADC) region. The station is fully Serial Digital Video,
4:3 and
16:9 switchable, but with the flexibility of analogue with dual language stereo capabilities.
The station uses the Quantel Inspiration System for processing and transmission with the news processing software
ENPS (
Electronic News Production System) in the newsroom. Its server-based technology gives the news the speed and flexibility sought by
journalists and news editors.
To cover the wide area of the country, two satellite News Gathering (SNG) teams are based in the North and North-West -
Francistown
Francistown is the second largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 and 147,122 inhabitants for its agglomeration at the 2022 census. and often described as the "''Capital of the North''" or as the natives would have it “''T ...
and
Maun respectively. Their area of responsibility stretches from Palapye/Serowe to the border with
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
and
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
. The Maun team also covers Ghanzi the extreme West.
The station already provides a great outlet for advertisers because of its coverage. The client base has been gradually increasing since launch. With SADC secretariat based in
Gaborone
Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
Gaboron ...
, BTV is expected to play a significant role in driving Botswana's vision of becoming the financial services centre for the region and attracting investors to Botswana. As it grows, the station expects to play a crucial role in the development of the television industry in Botswana.
ISDB-T / SBTVD
Features:
* Supports ISDB-T broadcast (13 segments).
* MPEG-2/ MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264 HD/ SD video.
* DiVX Compatible with 480i/ 480p/ 720p/ 1080i/ 1080p video formats. Auto and Manually scan all available TV and radio channels.
* Aspect ratio 16:9 and 4:3.
* 1000 channels memory.
* Parental control.
* Teletext/ Bit map subtitle.
* Compliant with ETS1.
* Supported 7 days EPG function.
* VBI Teletext support 6 MHz software setting Auto/ Manual program search.
* Multi language supported.
See also
*
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
*
Internet in Botswana
The Internet in Botswana is used by about 28.4% of the population. This is slightly lower than the figure of 28.6% for Africa as a whole in 2015.
Statistics
* Internet top-level domain: .bw[Botswana Internet Exchange
This is a list of Internet exchange points ( IXPs). There are several sources for IXP locations, including Packet Clearing House, who have maintained the earliest list of IXPs, with global coverage since 1994. Also, Telegeography, PeeringDB and t ...]
*
Telecommunications in Botswana
*
Botswana Telecommunications Authority
Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) is a dissolved independent commission that was responsible for regulating all matters related to telecommunications (wire, cellular, satellite and cable), postal services of Botswana and has been suc ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botswana TV
Publicly funded broadcasters
Television in Botswana
State media
Broadcasting companies of Botswana
Television channels and stations established in 2000