CBC, acronym of Caspian Broadcasting Company, is an Azerbaijani privately owned television channel owned by

SOCAR The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (), largely known by its abbreviation SOCAR, is a fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and o ...

and headquartered at 8 November Avenue in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

. It is the first international television channel of Azerbaijan, launched in 2009 as ATV International, later utilizing its current name in 2013 after it was acquired from

Azad Azerbaijan TV Azad Azerbaijan TV (), also known by its acronym ATV, is an Azerbaijani privately-owned national terrestrial television channel. It is owned by the Azad Azerbaijan Independent Teleradio Company. ATV began broadcasting on 25 December 2000, and is he ...

. The channel broadcasts in Russian.

History

On 5 March 2009, Azad Azerbaijan TV was granted a license to operate "ATV International", set to broadcast exclusively via satellite to international viewers for up to six years. It began operations on 5 October using the Türksat 3A satellite and equipment imported from Germany and the United States. ATV International was later officially launched on 24 December. As ATV International was not a commercial channel, there were issues regarding the use of modern facilities. This resulted in Azad Azerbaijan TV later handing ATV International over to the media wing of SOCAR, SOCAR Media Public Union, on 10 April 2013, rebranding the channel as CBC, standing for the Caspian Broadcasting Company. It was set to promote the state's policy while representing the business interests of SOCAR, and also to become the leading television channel in the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

region. Journalist Azar Khalilov became the director general of the television channel. Earlier, the Caspian International Broadcasting Company was granted a six-year broadcasting license at a National Television and Radio Council meeting held on 2 April. When ANS Radio was being criticized for allegedly broadcasting Armenian music in May 2014, its authorities argued that CBC was broadcasting in Armenian. Khalilov responded by saying that it is a distinct matter and is only broadcast in Armenian to promote Azerbaijan to the world. The channel aired the

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League (), also known as Misli Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Azerbaijan and the highest level of the Azerbaijani football league system. It is contested by twelve ...

matches in the Azerbaijani language in August 2015. In November 2017, Vugar Khalilov succeeded as the director general of CBC. CBC was accused of allegedly promoting anti-Armenian propaganda in January 2024 through one of its documentaries titled ''Elimination of Yerevan's History''. However, on 11 September, a documentary on the lost heritage of Azerbaijanis in the Armenian capital

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

titled ''Hidden Heritage of Yerevan'' was nominated for a prize at the Around International Film Festival held in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Programming

During its existence as ATV International, the channel had broadcast news programming in English,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and Russian, in addition to native Azerbaijani. It also aired documentaries regarding the heritage, culture, art, and architecture of Azerbaijan, as well as concerts of prominent Azerbaijani artists and local and foreign feature films. After the rebrand, 90% of CBC's programming was set to be in languages spoken in the South Caucasus region, while the rest was to be broadcast in languages spoken in Azerbaijan. The channel continued broadcasting in the four languages as mentioned earlier. Nowadays, CBC broadcasts in Russian for 24 hours a day.

References

External links

* {{Television in Azerbaijan Television stations in Azerbaijan Russian-language television stations Television channels and stations established in 2009 2009 establishments in Azerbaijan Television channels and stations established in 2013 2013 establishments in Azerbaijan