Afghanistan National Television ( prs, تلویزیون ملی '' Telvizoon-e Milli Afganistan'', ps, ملی تلویزیون ''Da Afganistan Milli Telvizoon'') is the state-owned

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. It is part of the

Radio Television Afghanistan National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA; ps, ''Da Afġanistan Mīlī Radīo Telvizoon'', fa, ''Rādīo Telvizoon-e Mīlī-e Afġānestān'', branded as ملی (meaning ''national'')) is the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanista ...

(RTA)

public broadcaster 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 ...

History

Afghan television was launched on 19 August 1978,

Afghan Independence Day Afghan Independence Day is celebrated as a national holiday in Afghanistan on 19 August to commemorate the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 and relinquishment from British protectorate status. The treaty granted a complete neutral relation betwee ...

, in a ceremony headed by

Nur Muhammad Taraki Nur Muhammad Taraki (; 14 July 1917 – 9 October 1979) was an Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer. He was a founding member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) who served as its General Secret ...

. Since the beginning its broadcasts were in colour. In 1983 three new stations were commissioned in

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

and

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

, however they started its broadcasts some months later. On 2 January 1985 the broadcasts started in Jalalabad while a new station in

Badakhshan Province Badakhshan Province (Persian/ Uzbek: , ''Badaxšān'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan in the north and the Pakistani regions of Lowe ...

finished its construction. On 3 February 1985 a new station opened in

Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...

, while the same month the broadcasts started in Kandahar and Herat. During the

Taliban regime The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

, Afghanistan National Television ceased operations when television was banned, and on 8 July 1998 they ordered the destruction of all TV sets. After the Taliban were overthrown, television in Afghanistan restarted on 18 November 2001. In 2019, RTA launched a sister channel to the main station called RTA Sport, which is dedicated to sports content.

Exclusive 2008 speech

RTA became famous worldwide when Afghan President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

made a live speech to the world minutes after dozens of insurgents attempted to assassinate him at an Afghan military parade. The assassination attempt was thwarted by the

Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

. The scene of the attempt was also broadcast live to RTA viewers in Afghanistan and picked up by the international media.

International availability

Afghanistan National Television became available in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania 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 ...

Asia Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

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 Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only Digital d ...

satellite in Europe. Currently the channel broadcasts on the

TürkmenÄlem 52°E / MonacoSAT TürkmenÄlem 52°E / MonacoSAT is a communications satellite operated by Turkmenistan National Space Agency, built by Thales Alenia Space in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France. Launched from Cape Canaveral on 27 April 2015 aboard a Fal ...

satellite to viewers in and around Afghanistan and in Europe, and western Asia. It also broadcasts on

GSAT-19 GSAT-19 is an Indian communications satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation aboard a GSLV Mark III on 5 June 2017. Satellite and payloads The satellite will act as a testbed for the modular I-6K satellite bus, carrying experi ...

for viewers in the Indian subcontinent.

References

{{Eastern Bloc media Publicly funded broadcasters Television channels and stations established in 1964 State media Soviet foreign aid

History

Exclusive 2008 speech

International availability

See also

References