Radiotelevision 21 (), abbreviated as RTV21, is a broadcaster and media company based in

Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

, which includes a radio (est. May 11, 1998), a television station (est. September 22, 2000), and six sister stations. Its launch in

online radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

made it the first Albanian station to air over the internet.

History

Founding

Founded as Radio 21 by Afërdita Saraçini and her husband, Florin Kelmendi, this transmission was a 30-minute news program about the events in Kosovo during the 1998-1999 war. Radio 21 reported from

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

temporarily during the NATO bombing (March–June 1999). After the war began the revival of this broadcaster and with the help of donations from abroad the company also launched the national TV channel RTV21. In 2000 the station was licensed nationally and broadcast two hours of programming daily, which was increased to 18 hours in 2001. Since 2002, the transmitter airs a round-the-clock programming, consisting of 70% in-house productions. RTV21 broadcasts via terrestrial and satellite in Europe and America. Even Radio 21 broadcasts 24 hours through FM waves.

Further endeavors

Since September 2007, RTV21 launched multiple cable channels: the music channel 21 Plus, the Albanian folk music station 21 Popullore, the children's channel 21 Junior, the cultural channel 21 Mix, and the economy channel 21 Business. This would be followed up by the foundation of TV 21 in North Macedonia on September 21, 2015. Company 21 owns a 2200-square meter venue named ''Sheshi 21'' (Square 21), which is rented to event organizers.

Major firsts in Kosovo programming

Being one of the major three television stations in Kosovo at the time, it and

Kohavision Kohavision (shortened to KTV, previously also Koha Vision) is a Kosovan free-to-air television channel launched on September 21, 2000. It was founded by politician and journalist Veton Surroi as part of KOHA Group, a media house currently led by ...

were competing with their arrivals of foreign shows to the country. The network aired Latin American

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

s as a part of its regular schedule, however in 2009 this programming slowly shifted to the Turkish drama series which was already growing in popularity worldwide. '' Acı Hayat (Bitter Life)'' first aired on the network that year, to major success in the Kosovan market as it brought stiff competition to the competing networks. Kohavision soon followed suit, along with other networks using the same strategy and steadily replacing Latin American telenovelas. In January 2012, RTV21 became the first station in Kosovo to broadcast on

digital terrestrial Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

. 2013 marked RTV21's efforts in

anamorphic widescreen Anamorphic widescreen (also called full-height anamorphic or FHA) is a process by which a widescreen image is horizontally compressed to fit into a storage medium (photographic film or MPEG-2 standard-definition frame, for example) with a narr ...

, later broadcasting in high-definition, the first station in Kosovo and in the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

to do so. By the end of 2012, RTV21 was selected as TV channel of the year on the first edition of IMK. Besides various newscasts, RTV21 broadcasts primarily cultural and entertainment programs such as ''Diçka po zihet'' or magazine program ''Relax''. Also the first season of '' Shpija e Kosovës'' (the early Kosovan version of ''Big Brother'') was broadcast on RTV21.

Programming

Nationally created shows

International shows

References

External links

Official website

YouTube channel

Smart World TV
{{coord missing, Kosovo Television stations in Kosovo Radio stations in Kosovo Television channels and stations established in 1998