The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

broadcaster of

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. BNT was founded in 1959 and started

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

on December 26 of the same year. It was the first television service to broadcast on the territory of Bulgaria. BNT is a member of

International Radio and Television Organisation The International Radio and Television Organisation (official name in French: Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision or OIRT (before 1960 International Broadcasting Organization (IBO), official name in French: ''Organ ...

(to 31 December 1992),

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(from 1 January 1993), EGTA, IMZ, CIRCOM Regional, FIAT and BBLF.

History

The first television broadcast in Bulgaria was in 1959. The archive had recorders, photos and movies which were open to the public from the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. From 1964, BNT began broadcasting news, programmes and movies in monochrome to serve the rising number of viewers in Bulgaria. BNT began broadcasting in

colour Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorp ...

in 1973 using the French

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''sequential colour memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. ...

colour system after series of experimental broadcasting since 1969. The second channel, BT2, saw its emergence the following year. From 1975, the first video recordings using the 2-inch format were made. In 1977, a broadcasting and program archive was created. In 1983, recorders with one-inch tape were made. The end of the 2-inch era was in 1984. The year 1991 was very important for Bulgarian National Television. All records started to be recorded on computer and digitized for better quality, and available in a variety of other formats, and it switched from SECAM to the more widely used

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

. BT1 and BT2, were renamed as "Kanal 1" and "Efir 2", respectively. In 1992, an archive was created with more than 2,000 photos and 33,000 documents. The year 1999 saw the foundation of TV Bulgaria (now BNT 4), BNT's satellite television. The

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

became the first sports event broadcast in HD format. Since March 2012, BNT has been broadcasting in 16:9 format. On 6 February 2014, BNT started broadcasting its own HD channel – BNT HD (which was renamed in 2018 as BNT 3).

Channels

The Bulgarian National Television broadcasts on four different themed channels: *

BNT 1 BNT 1 () is a Bulgarian language, Bulgarian-language public television, public television station founded in 1959. The headquarters are located in Sofia, Bulgaria. BNT 1 is run by Bulgarian National Television. History First trial broadcasts beg ...

– a 24-hour channel with national significance *

BNT 2 BNT 2 () is a Bulgarian-language public television station, operated by Bulgarian National Television. It is the successor to the defunct second program of the national television - Efir 2. Launched on October 16, 2011, the channel replaced th ...

– cultural-based channel that offers a variety of programmes covering all aspects of day-to-day life of the Bulgarian people, culture, arts, sports, entertainment, films, series and regional programming *

BNT 3 BNT 3 (, previously BNT HD) is a Bulgarian-language public television station, operated by Bulgarian National Television. It broadcasts sport events, movies and cultural programs. History It was launched on February 6, 2014 as "BNT HD" with the ...

– sport-based channel *

BNT 4 BNT 4 (, previously BNT World and BNT Sat) is a Bulgarian-language public international television channel owned and operated by Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национал ...

– broadcasts internationally and provides cultural and informative content produced in Bulgaria Outside of Bulgaria, only BNT 4 is available to watch over the internet. BNT 1, BNT 2 and BNT 3 channels are watched over the internet only in Bulgaria due to their broadcasting rights. Attempting to watch BNT 1, BNT 2 and BNT 3 channels outside of Bulgaria, the

test card A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off). Used since the ear ...

on the website will result in the English text "This broadcast is limited only for the territory of Bulgaria.". BNT operates four regional broadcasting centers, based in

Blagoevgrad Blagoevgrad ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province. With a population of almost inhabitants, it is the economic and cultura ...

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

and

Ruse Ruse may refer to: Places *Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria **Ruse Municipality **Ruse Province **19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency *Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia * Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-cent ...

Mission, values and goals

BNT operates in accordance with the Radio and Television Act. Under the Act, BNT is a legal entity based in Sofia and it is the national public service broadcaster and communications operator. As a public service broadcaster, the main purpose of BNT is to deliver a broad range of news and programming that keeps its audience informed about important issues and events in the areas of politics, economics, business, culture, science and education. Through its programming policy, BNT protects national interests and values, science and education; and represents the cultural heritage of all Bulgarian citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity. BNT caters for the diverse ideas and beliefs within society by reflecting the many different points of view and encouraging mutual understanding and tolerance in the relations between people. BNT has the commitment to produce a broad spectrum of national and regional programmes including ones about other countries, societies and cultures around the world; programmes that meet the needs of Bulgarian citizens whose mother-tongue is not Bulgarian, by the inclusion of original content in their own language; and programmes that keep Bulgarians living abroad up-to date with events in their home country.

Logos

File:БНТ.svg, First BNT standalone logo used 1959–2008 File:BNT logo 2008.svg, Previous BNT logo from 2008 to 2018 File:Logo of BNT (2018-).svg, BNT Logo (2018-) File:Logo of BNT 1 (2018-).svg, BNT 1 Logo (2018-) File:Logo of BNT 2 (2018-).svg, BNT 2 Logo (2018-) File:Logo of BNT 3 (2018-).svg, BNT 3 Logo (2018-) File:Logo of BNT 4 (2018-).svg, BNT 4 Logo (2018-)

References

External links