Croatian Radio Television

''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' ( HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into three joint companies – Croatian Radio (), Croatian Television () and Music Production (), which includes three orchestras (Symphony, Jazz, and Tamburitza) and a choir.

The founder of HRT is the Republic of Croatia which exercises its founder's rights through the Croatian Government. Croatian Radio (then Radio Zagreb) was founded on 15 May 1926. This date is considered the date on which HRT was founded. Television Zagreb (today Croatian Television) began broadcasting on 7 September 1956. By the law enacted by the Croatian Parliament on 29 June 1990, Radio Television Zagreb was renamed to Croatian Radiotelevision.

HRT operates as a provider of public broadcasting services, and Croatia provides independent funding by the Croatian Broadcasting Company Law and the State Aid Rules for Public Broadcasting Services. In carrying out its activities, HRT is independent of any political influence and commercial interest.

On 25 May 2012, HRT's archive of the television and radio program and its collection of musical production was given the status of Croatian cultural heritage.

History

Croatian Radiotelevision is the direct successor of Radio Station Zagreb () that started broadcasting on 15 May 1926, the second radio station to broadcast in the Balkans. The station was initially a private company, before Radio Zagreb was nationalized on 1 May 1940. During the Independent State of Croatia, the station was known as ''Hrvatski krugoval''. After World War II, it began to operate as a state-owned radio station.

At the end of the first year of operation, Radio Zagreb company had a little over four thousand subscribers.

On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Zagreb Radio Station, on 15 May 1956, the first television programme was broadcast from the transmitter built at Sljeme. Television Zagreb's first live broadcast aired on 7 September 1956, making Croatia the first Yugoslav republic to have television. For the next two years this was the only television broadcasting service in the southeast European area. Colour television broadcasts began in 1972. In 1970s, Radio Zagreb Correspondence Center and to a lesser extent Zagreb TV were the main coordinators of cooperation with other units of the Yugoslav Radio Television in production of media content for numerous Yugoslav citizens abroad. The program was aired by Radio Cologne, Frankfurt, Free Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Liege, Luxembourg, Hilversum and Stockholm while the second program of the German public television aired Zagreb made "Good Morning Yugoslavia" show.

In May 1990, following Franjo Tuđman's election victory, he and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union party began a takeover of radio and television stations. In June 1990, the Croatian Parliament renamed the company from Radio Television Zagreb () to Croatian Radiotelevision (). The HDZ-majority Croatian Parliament soon appointed party loyalists to top managerial and editorial positions on the broadcaster.

The film director Antun Vrdoljak, a Tuđman appointee who was tasked with overseeing the changes, pledged to make HRT into the "cathedral of the Croatian spirit". On 16 September 1991, 300 employees at HRT were fired for "security reasons". According to Miljenko Jergović, formerly of the Croatian independent '' Feral Tribune'', there were three waves of purges at HRT at this time: removal of Serb journalists; removal of "independent-minded, respected and thus dangerous" journalists; and slowly, the removal of those who did not support ultranationalism any longer.

On 1 January 1993, HRT was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The television channels were aired under the name Croatian Television () between 1990 and 1993. Since then, the current name has been used. The radio broadcast unit is referred to as Croatian Radio ().

Following Tuđman's death and the 2000 election in Croatia which brought Stjepan Mesić to power, attempts at reforming HRT into a more open media were made.

Funding

In 2014, more than 85% of HRT's revenue came from broadcast user fees with each household in Croatia required to pay 79 HRK (~€10) per month for a single television set, with the remainder being made up from limited advertising.

Television

Channels

* HRT 1 (or ''Prvi program''): HRT's first TV channel, previously known as TVZ 1. This is a general channel with daily news around the world, documentaries, religious programmes, series and movies.
* HRT 2 (or ''Drugi program''): HRT's second channel, previously known as TVZ 2. It is primarily used for sports broadcasts and entertainment programmes. The channel is known for its extensive footage of vintage films. It also broadcasts educational programmes.
* HRT 3 (or ''Treći program''): HRT's third channel, primarily used for culture, films and documentaries. It was relaunched in September 2012.
* HRT 4 (or ''Četvrti program''): HRT's fourth channel, broadcasting news programmes, started airing in December 2012.
* HRT International, formerly HRT 5 (or ''Peti program''): HRT's fifth and international channel, broadcasting a wide range of programmes from its domestic channels for the Croatian diasporas in Europe, North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

In the 1980s, there was a third channel called Z3 and later HTV Z3. It was taken off-air on 16 September 1991 when its main transmitter, the Sljeme TV tower, was damaged in an air raid. On 7 November 1994, the channel came back on the air, this time called HRT 3. The channel was later shut down with its frequency de-nationalized and put up for lease in a public tender in 2004 and it has been used by RTL Televizija ever since. It was replaced by satellite channel HRT Plus until its relaunch in 2012.

Regional TV channels

* ''()''
* ''()''
* ''()''
* ''()''
* ''()''

Streaming

In October 2015, HRT Launched HRTi, an over-the-top streaming service free to all registered users. HRTi offers a live stream of HRT's television and radio channels, as well as access to select catalogue of HRT's original and acquired programming.

Programming

* '' Dnevnik HRT'' ("Daily News"), popular midday, evening and midnight news program
* ''Dobro jutro, Hrvatska'' ("Good Morning, Croatia"), mosaic morning show from 7:00 to 9:00 am
* ''Dobar dan, Hrvatska'' ("Good Afternoon, Croatia"), mosaic afternoon show
* '' Nedjeljom u dva'' ("Sundays at Two O'Clock"), weekly talk show
* ''Transfer'' ("Transfer"), show about the alternative culture and arts (visual arts, music and web culture)
* '' TV kalendar'' ("TV Calendar"), long-running daily historical documentary television series, narrating about historical events, birth/death of people or their discoveries on the same date
* '' Tko želi biti milijunaš?'' (" Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"), quiz show
* ''Zvijezde pjevaju'' ("Just the Two of Us"), big Saturday singing show
* ''Lijepom Našom'' ("Our Beautiful"), a show focused on Croatian cultural heritage
* ''Otvoreno'' ("Openly"), daily political talk-show

Former shows

* ''Dan za danom'' ("Day After Day"), mosaic afternoon show
* ''Kviskoteka'' (quiz show), hosted by Oliver Mlakar, aired in the 1980s and 1990s, later briefly aired on Nova TV
* ''Male tajne velikih majstora kuhinje'' ("Small Secrets of Big Chefs") (cooking show), aired in the 1980s
* ''Motrišta'' ("Points of View") (political informative magazine), aired in the 1990s
* '' The Pyramid'', weekly show hosted by Željka Ogresta, winner of Rose d'Or, aired 2004–2008; 2014
* ''Slika na sliku'' ("Frame On Frame") (political magazine), aired in the 1990s
* ''Upitnik'' ("Question Mark") (quiz show), hosted by Joško Lokas, aired in the 2000s, later briefly aired on Nova TV, taken off-air in 2004
* ''Turbo Limač Show'' (kids' Saturday show), hosted by Siniša Cmrk
* ''Željka Ogresta i gosti'' ("Željka Ogresta and Guests") (talk show), aired in the start of the 1990s and in the start of the 2000s
* '' Ples sa zvijezdama'' ("Dancing with the Stars"), Saturday dancing show

Upcoming shows

* ''Big Saturday Live'', Saturday night show
* ''Dancing on Ice''
* ''Friends'', children's Sunday program
* ''School work'', educational school morning magazine
* ''Sunday Afternoon''
* ''Talks with Coffee'', talk show
* '' Pinkalicious & Peterrific'', children's Monday-Thursday program
* ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', children Sunday program

Radio

The Croatian Radio (''Hrvatski radio'') runs three national and eight local (county-level) stations.

National stations

The three national stations are available on FM, DAB+, throughout the country and are streamed live via the Internet.

* HR 1 – The primary national-level station, mainly serious programming. News every full hour with oldies and local pop music.
* HR 2 – Entertainment programming including popular music, with news followed by traffic reports at the half-hour mark
* HR 3 – Classical music and radio drama

Regional stations

* HR Dubrovnik – based in Dubrovnik, covers the Dubrovnik-Neretva County
*HR Knin – based in Knin, covers the Šibenik-Knin County
*HR Osijek – based in Osijek, covers the Osijek-Baranja County
*HR Pula – based in Pula, covers the Istria County
*HR Rijeka – based in Rijeka, covers the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
*HR Sljeme – based in Zagreb, covers the city and the counties of the Northern Croatia
*HR Split – based in Split, covers the Split-Dalmatia County
*HR Zadar – based in Zadar, covers the Zadar County

The mediumwave transmitter at Zadar was at one time one of the most powerful in Europe and at nighttime could be heard throughout most of the continent with JRT (Yugoslav) and later HR (Croatian) programming from Zagreb and Pula. However it was badly damaged during the Serbian shelling of the city in the early 1990s, and has operated on somewhat reduced power since on 1134 kHz. Transmitter was rebuilt in 2004. It consists of 4 masts, every is 132 meters high. It was taken off the air on 1 January 2014.

International service

* Voice of Croatia (''Glas Hrvatske''): Airs programming for Croatians living abroad, Croatia's minority groups and the international community. While mostly in Croatian, the station also features short news and segments in English, German, Italian, Hungarian, and Spanish at different times of the day.

The Voice of Croatia broadcasts 24 hours a day via the following satellites; in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East on the Eutelsat 13C at 13°E and Eutelsat 16A at 16 degrees east for Central and East Europe.

Logos

File:Radiotelevizija Zagreb logo.svg, 1956–1990
File:HRT logo 1990.png, 1990
File:HRT logo 1990-1999.png, 1994–1999
File:Hrvatska Radiotelevizija logo.svg, 1999–present (black strips)
File:Logo of the HRT.svg, 1999–present (white strips)

Presentation history

Clocks

Clocks on Televizija Hrvatska were introduced in 1956.

The previous clock was used from January 8, 2007, until April 23, 2012. The clock was white on a blue background, next to the clock is an advert. (Was changed slightly in 2009, where the name "TELEVIZIJA HRVATSKA" was moved from beside the clock to the clock's face and changing tip seconds from white to red.)

The current clock is used from April 23, 2012. The clock is white, on the bottom of the clock is the HRT logo, an advert is next to the clock.

Test cards

The test card TELEVIZIJA HRVATSKA is PM5544, introduced in the 1970s. Nowadays test cards are rarely broadcast.

*1970s to 1980s: PM5544 with upper text "JRT" and lower text "RTV-ZGRB".
*1980s to September 1990: The testcard has again been modified, where updated upper text to "RTV-1" or "RTV-2" & lower text to "ZAGREB".
*Since September 1990: Modified testcard. Upper text is "TELEVIZIJA", lower text is "HRVATSKA".

Closing and opening times

HRT1

*1960s to 1980s: opens at 11:30 and close at 22:30, along with other stations of the Yugoslav Radio Television broadcast system
*1980s to June 23, 1991: opens at 08:00 and close at 23:00, along with other stations of the Yugoslav Radio Television broadcast system
*24 June 1991 – 1994: opens at 08:00 and close at 00:00
*1994–1997: opens at 06:00 and close at 00:30
*1998–2000: opens at 05:30 and close at 01:00
*2000–2002: opens at 05:00 and close at 01:30
*2002–present: 24-hour

HRT2

*1970s to June 1991: opens at 18:00 and close at 22:00, along with other Yugoslavian channel 2's
*September 1990 – 1995: opens at 11:00 and close at 23:00
*1995–2000: opens at 09:30 and close at 00:00
*2000–2004: opens at 06:00 and close at 01:00
*2004–present: 24-hour

HRT3

*2008–2009: opens at 08:00 and close at 00:00
*2009–present: 24/7

HRT1 Dnevnik

*1960s to 1980s: starts at 20:00; ends at 20:15
*1980s to 2003: starts at 19:30: ends at 20:00
*2003–present: starts at 19:00; ends at 20:00

See also

* Radio in Croatia
* Television in Croatia

References

Books

*

External links

*
Zakon o Hrvatskoj radioteleviziji
(Croatian Radiotelevision Act)

{{authority control

1926 establishments in Croatia
Publicly funded broadcasters
Radio stations in Croatia
Television networks in Croatia
European Broadcasting Union members
Multilingual broadcasters
Radio stations established in 1926
Television channels and stations established in 1956
State media
Government-owned companies of Croatia
Companies based in Zagreb
Modern history of Croatia
Croatian news websites