The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ( el, Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση AE, Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi SA) or ERT () is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

History

Overview

ERT began broadcasting in 1938 as the Radio Broadcasting Service or YRE (). Following a government decision, the original company was abolished on 11 June 2013, with its 2,656 employees protesting against the closure and continuing broadcasting via a satellite transmission using

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

equipment. The EBU also began providing Internet streaming of the ERT broadcast. On 12 June 2013, the Greek government proposed a successor organization, New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (), shortened to

NERIT New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television ( el, Νέα Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία, Ίντερνετ και Τηλεόραση) or NERIT (ΝΕΡΙΤ) was the state-owned public broadcasting, public broadcaster for Greece from 4 May 20 ...

(), which launched in August 2013 as "

Public Television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

" (). As protests against the decision of the government (Coalition of New Democracy, PASOK, DIMAR) continued, on 15 June Prime Minister Samaras proposed returning ERT to service immediately, by having an emergency committee rehire selected employees. This offer was rejected by the ERT employees and Samaras' coalition partners. On 17 June 2013, following an appeal by ERT's employees to the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

(Greece's highest administrative court), the Council suspended the government's decision to interrupt broadcasting and shut down ERT's frequencies and ordered the Finance Minister and the minister responsible for media, signing the decision, to take "all necessary organisational measures for the continuation of transmission of broadcasting services and operation of internet websites by a public broadcaster for the period until the establishment and operation of a new operator that will serve the public's interest". In his ruling, the Council's President found that the government's decision violated Law 1730/1987 which requires "the contribution by a public broadcaster to informing, educating and entertaining the Greek people and the diaspora". The Council's appellate division upheld the original Temporary Injunction three days later. Until 24 October 2013, ERT's employees were able to offer the television programmes of NET (also simulcast in HD as ERT-HD) and ET3, and the radio programmes of ERA Athens-Thessaloniki and Third Programme through conventional means (analogue and digital TV, FM, medium and shortwave radio broadcasts) as well as over the Internet. At approximately 18:11

EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes i ...

, ERT lost their satellite capacity on the

Astra 23.5°E Astra 23.5°E is a group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 23.5° east position in the Clarke Belt owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 23.5° east is one of the major TV satellite positions serving Europ ...

satellite after successful lobbying by the Greek government to the capacity provider SES S.A. That halted most conventional TV and radio broadcasts that received the feed from the satellite, but did not affect the regional ERA affiliates that produced their programming locally, nor a large part of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

which is served by a

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Feb ...

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

located within the ERT HQ in Ayia Paraskevi. Web streaming wasn't affected at all. , more than nine months after the decision to close down ERT, the striking workers still ran 17 radio stations (15 regional, two national) and a single TV channel (ET3), from the regional radio studios, and the ET3 Television Building in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

. FM and AM transmissions continued throughout Greece with some interruptions and

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

transmissions continued with a weaker transmission power. All radio stations were also available as webstreams. The TV channel was sporadically transmitted in conventional means (analogue transmitters in Thessaloniki), and was always available as a webstream. In April 2015, the Hellenic Parliament approved the draft of re-opening ERT S.A. and also voted and approved the draft of re-opening this broadcaster. As of 11 June 2015, ERT again started broadcasting, replacing NERIT.

1938–2013

ERT began broadcasting in 1938 as the Radio Broadcasting Service or YRE (), initially limited to radio services from

, with the

Athens Radio Station The Athens Radio Station ( el, Ραδιοφωνικός Σταθμός Αθηνών) was a radio station that began to emit in 1938 in Athens under the auspices of the Metaxas Regime's Radio Broadcast Service (, ΥΡΕ). It was based in the prem ...

based in the

Zappeion The Zappeion ( el, Ζάππειον Μέγαρο, Záppeion Mégaro, ) is a large, palatial building next to the National Gardens of Athens in the heart of Athens, Greece. It is generally used for meetings and ceremonies, both official and priva ...

. During the Axis occupation of Greece, the service was renamed as the Limited Hellenic Radio Company or AERE (). After Liberation, in 1945 the service was reorganized as the National Radio Foundation or EIR (), still based at Zappeion. The radio services were expanded to three national radio services as well as international radio services for emigrant Greeks. EIR was one of 23 founding broadcasting organizations of the

in 1950. Test television broadcasts began in 1965 and full TV service began in 1966. In 1970, the company was renamed National Radio and Television Foundation or EIRT (). In 1966, the

Hellenic Armed Forces The Hellenic Armed Forces ( el, Eλληνικές Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, Ellinikés Énoples Dynámis) are the military forces of Greece. They consist of the Hellenic Army, the Hellenic Navy, and the Hellenic Air Force. The civilian a ...

began their own TV station, the Armed Forces Television or TED (), renamed in 1970 as the Armed Forces Information Service or YENED (). Television was prominently used as a propaganda medium by the

Greek junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

. YENED its name and military orientation until the early 1980s, when it was renamed ERT2 by the then

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

government. On 1 September 1987, a third station was added – ET3, based in

, with mostly regional programming focused on Macedonia and the rest of

Northern Greece Northern Greece ( el, Βόρεια Ελλάδα, Voreia Ellada) is used to refer to the northern parts of Greece, and can have various definitions. Administrative regions of Greece Administrative term The term "Northern Greece" is widely used ...

. During the first 20 years of TV services in

, ERT broadcasting was limited, starting at around 5pm to between midnight and 2am. Since 1997 the three ERT TV channels are known as ET1, NET and ET3, and broadcast round the clock. ET1 is an entertainment channel whereas NET is focused on news services. ET3 is still focused on Northern Greece issues, although it broadcasts nationwide. ERT was a major national sponsor and the official broadcaster of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It has been broadcasting the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

in Greece since the Mexico City Games of 1968. It also broadcasts

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

games while it is shown on privately owned channels mainly in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Today it broadcasts documentaries, some from the private sector, and a few

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

shows. With the introduction of independent privately owned channels in Greece in the late 1980s, programme quality changed to a more commercial variety, in order to survive the fierce competition for ratings. This was a major shift in the network's principles that was dominated by wider variety, alleged "higher quality" programmes including documentaries and World Cinema. On 19 August 2011 the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation announced a planned restructuring of the company; ERT's main channels became NET and ET3, while ET1 was incorporated into the program of NET and ET3. Additionally the digital channels Cine+ and Sport+ ceased broadcasting, and their programming were again incorporated into that of the company's two major domestic channels. ERT World also saw changes in its programming to reflect the needs of the

Greek diaspora The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia ( el, Ομογένεια, Omogéneia), are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus (excluding Northern Cyprus). Such places historically include Albania, North Macedonia, parts of ...

as identified by a survey conducted by ERT. The

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...

also said that the company would become ''public'' but no longer ''state-owned''.

Closure

At 17:45

(UTC+3) on 11 June 2013, the Greek spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced ERT would close by the end of the day. ERT shutdown caused the loss of 2,500 employees. ERT was dissolved by a Common Ministerial Decision that was enacted by virtue of Article 14B of Law 3429/2005 (regarding the dissolution, merger and restructuring of public companies) as amended by an urgent government Legislative Ordinace (FEK 139/11.06.2013, Issue A'). Despite running a budget surplus on income from a license fee outside the state budget, in a televised statement, Simos Kedikoglou, the minister responsible for media and the government's spokesperson, said that the ERT was a "haven of waste" that cost more and had fewer viewers than private stations. Later in the evening, some of ERT workers managed to continue the broadcasting via Ustream. Police forced their way into at least one of the transmitting stations, and all ERT transmitters were closed down around Greece, as was eventually the worldwide ERT World feed. Using satellite offices and other spaces that had not been closed down, ERT journalists continued to broadcast to the Internet. The nearest ERT Transmitters to Athens closed at approximately 23:17 local time. 20 seconds later, channel 902TV (the communist party channel) retransmits the ERT signal, although a few minutes later, the Greek government called Digea, the digital television service, to close the signal 02'sdue to rebroadcasting the signal without permission, and so 902 was closed for a period of time. This action was deemed unacceptable by most Greek citizens due to the Greek Government shutting down ERT without consulting the National Council of Radio and Television, the official body of Radio and Television in Greece. On 12 June at noon local time, the AS and IP range of ERT, the official domain names "ert.gr", "ert3.gr", and "voiceofgreece.gr" were cancelled in the Greek Internet registry, meaning that live broadcasts on the Internet (ERT LIVE) have stopped, as well as the publication of all news articles. Emails sent to the broadcasters are no longer delivered. Other Internet assets registered by ERT are at risk of being closed (because their owner and contact address are no longer valid), notably the official

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

page and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account. ERT LIVE is relayed by other sites, such as the University of Greece. The European Broadcasting Union was quick to criticise the closure, issuing a statement the same evening where they expressed "profound dismay on behalf of Europe’s entire public service media" and urged the prime minister to reverse the decision. The EBU made the ERT stream available on satellite to its members, declaring as well that "to be in the EBU, you must be a broadcaster, and so we will continue keeping ERT on the EBU council" as said by the director, Ingrid Delterne. Alexis Tsipras, the leftwing opposition leader, who would later become Prime Minister, expressed dismay in regards of ERT's shutdown and described it as "illegal".

NERIT

On 12 June 2013 a Greek government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced the formation of a new public service broadcaster, New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television. The company's services were expected to launch on 29 August 2013. The service provider employed between 1,000 and 1,200 and was funded by advertising and tax contributions. Prior to its launch on television, a temporary state television broadcaster known as Dimosia Tileorasi (English: Public Television) launched on 10 July 2013 on the frequencies of ERT, launching as Elliniki Dimosia Tileorasi (English: Greek Public Television). It was closed on 4 May 2014, in order for it to be replaced by NERIT.

Relaunch of ERT

In 2015, the government, under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, restored ERT as Greece's public broadcaster and NERIT ceased broadcasting on 11 June 2015, at 6:00 EEST.

Services

Radio

ERT broadcast radio programmes under the name of Hellenic Radio, since 1988. Under this name, ERT broadcasts four national radio services: * First Programme (Πρώτο Πρόγραμμα), is primarily a news-oriented station, with some current affairs and talk programming. * Second Programme (Δεύτερο Πρόγραμμα) is primarily a Greek music station. * Third Programme (Τρίτο Πρόγραμμα) is more of a classical music/arts & culture station (with some drama thrown in). *

ERA Sport The ERA Sport ( el, ERA Σπορ, ''ERA Spor'') is the sports radio station of ERT. The station broadcasts 24-hour sports programs. The programme also included political news. ERA Sport is one of the most popular sports radio station in the co ...

a sports-oriented station, with regular news every hour and sports news every half-hour. During the late night hours most ERA programmes aired a common night program. For regional audiences, ERT has 19 regional stations with relays. The regional station in Macedonia was the only one with two separate programme streams and a shortwave service. The interval signal for all ERA programmes are several opening bars of the folk song "Tsopanakos Imouna" (Once I Was A Shepherd Boy). * Kosmos 93.6 is primarily a world music (ethnic, soul, jazz, etc.) station. *

Voice of Greece The Voice of Greece ( el, Η Φωνή της Ελλάδας), also known as ERA 5, is the international service of Greek state radio on shortwave and via satellite and the internet. On 11 June 2013, the Greek government announced the closure ...

(ERA 5) is an international audience

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 m ...

station. Under the name of the ERA International Network, Voice of Greece and some ERA domestic programmes were rebroadcast on AM and FM stations throughout the globe. * 102 FM is the news station for the city of

. *95.8 FM is the music and cultural station for

. *Zeppelin 106.7 is the new rock music station. Former, discontinued channels: * Trito Programma Vrahea, ERT3's global radio. *Philia 106.7 (ERT Open), radio for immigrants in Greece.

Television

Current channels

Former discontinued channels

Cine+ Cine+ may refer to: * Ciné+, set of cable and satellite television channels owned by Canal+ * Cine+, a digital terrestrial television station owned by ERT Digital ERT Digital ( el, ΕΡΤ Ψηφιακή) was a pilot project by ERT, the public ...

– movies (part of

ERT Digital ERT Digital ( el, ΕΡΤ Ψηφιακή) was a pilot project by ERT, the public broadcaster of Greece. It was the first legal attempt at digital television broadcasting in Greece, featuring four new channels: Cine+, Prisma+ Sport+ and Info+. It ...

). *

Sport+ Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

– sports (part of

). * Prisma+ – program for hearing impaired (part of

). *

Studio+ ERT Digital ( el, ΕΡΤ Ψηφιακή) was a pilot project by ERT, the public broadcaster of Greece. It was the first legal attempt at digital television broadcasting in Greece, featuring four new channels: Cine+, Prisma+ Sport+ and Info+. It ...

– music (part of

in association with MAD TV). * Info+ – news and current affairs (part of

). *Cinesport+ – merger of Cine+ and Sport+.

Internet

www.ert.gr
is the ERT's official website. *ERT Play is the internet channel of ERT which started broadcasting on 28 January 2017. It is not a 24-hour channel, and is used to broadcast competitions when the 4 main channels can't broadcast any event (especially

). The first programme that was broadcast is the presentation of Demy for

Eurovision 2017 The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "1944" by Jamala. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and ...

.
www.ertflix.gr
is ERT's movie and television series streaming platform. It also live streams ERT's channels and has all of ERT's TV transmissions.
mousikasynola.ert.gr
is the website of its Music Ensembles.
www.ertnews.gr
is the ERT's news website.
www.ertsports.gr
is the ERT's sports website.

Music Ensembles

ERT is also home to three music ensembles: *National Symphony Orchestra *Contemporary Music Orchestra *Hellenic Radio Choir The music ensembles' broadcast is called Protos Orofos (First Floor) and aires on the Third Programme every Saturday at 14:30.

Programming

Funding

ERT is mainly funded by a license fee, which is also paid with the electricity bill (along with other applicable taxes) which represents the vast majority of resources in the public group. The fee was 4.74 euros per month in 2013, equal to 56.88 euros annually, but was reduced to 3 euros per month upon the launch of ERT. It is not connected with actual ownership of a TV set. There are modest grants from the government for contributing to educational public missions. However, since 2008, some commercial resources from advertisers (even though the channels have lost significant parts of audiences) and the economic crisis in Greece has severely impacted the profitability of advertising and of commercial cooperation for the joint production of programs, as well as the collection of license fees on electricity bills.

Corporate identity

The opening bars of ''Tsopanakos Imouna'' ( el, Τσοπανάκος ήμουνα) is ERT’s corporate

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

, as well as their interval signal on radio. ERT is the holder of the bigges
audiovisual archive
in Greece, which includes also significant moments of modern Greek history.

Logo history

File:EPT logo.svg, 7 June 2008 – 28 September 2020 File:ERT logo 2020.svg, 28 September 2020 – present

References

External links

*
ERT International

ET3
(Archive)
Company website

Live ERA Radio
{{Authority control Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation Publicly funded broadcasters European Broadcasting Union members Television networks in Greece Radio in Greece Television channels and stations established in 1966 Mass media companies established in 1938 1938 establishments in Greece Companies based in Athens Government-owned companies of Greece Public television in Greece Greek brands