Bulgarian National Television
Encyclopedia
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes 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 and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. The company was founded in 1959 and began broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
on December 26 of the same year. It began broadcasting in color in 1970. BNT's headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
are located in Sofia, Bulgaria, in a building located at the well-known address of 29 San Stefano Str.
BNT is funded from government funds (around 60%) with the rest coming from television commercials http://www.obs.coe.int/oea_publ/iris/iris_plus/focus6_2000.pdf.en. It broadcasts two television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
channels: the over-the-air BNT 1 and the international BNT World, a channel aiming to broadcast Bulgarian production only. Another channel, Efir 2
Efir 2
BNT 2 is a Bulgarian state-owned TV channel, operated by the 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 the four regional television centers of BNT - BNT Pirin, BNT More, BNT...
, existed between 1974 and 2000, and was later substituted by the private bTV. The channel was relaunched on October 2011 as BNT 2
BNT operates four regional broadcasting centres, based in Blagoevgrad
Blagoevgrad
Blagoevgrad is а city in southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Province, with a population of about 74,302 . It lies on the banks of the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa River....
(Pirin programme), Varna
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...
(More programme), Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
(Plovdiv programme) and Rousse
Rousse
Ruse is the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is situated in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, from the capital Sofia and from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast...
(Sever programme). They were merged together to create the BNT 2 channel in October 2011.
BNT's first live broadcast was the parade on the occasion of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
anniversary.
Logo history
This is the Bulgarian National Television's first logo. The logo consists of the Cyrillic letters "Б" and "Т" (for Bulgarian Television) shaped in the form of a TV antenna. Often the words "Bulgarian National Television" were placed on its right side. It was used until September 14, 2008. Before 1992, this was also the on-screen logo, and the channels' labels "БТ-1" and "БТ-2" stood next to it.
This is the BNT's second and current logo. The "БТ" antenna again appears, but somewhat squeezed compared to the previous logo. This time it is positioned in the middle of a dark red rectangle. Below it, placed in separate red squares, are the Cyrillic letters "Б", "Н" and "Т". This logo has been used since September 15, 2008.
Test card
The testcard of the BNT was introduced in the 1970s. Initially, the testcard had the text "БТ–СОФИЯ" with no time and date, along with various shapes and colors around it. After the organisation was renamed, the text was changed to "БНТ". The sound during broadcasts of the test card was audio from the Bulgarian National RadioBulgarian National Radio
Bulgarian National Radio is Bulgaria's national radio broadcasting organization. It operates two national and seven regional channels, as well as an international service – Radio Bulgaria – which broadcasts in 11 languages.-National:...
.
After Efir 2 was closed in 2000 and Channel 1 started broadcasting a full 24-hour schedule, the test card has rarely been seen. One can only expect to see it during maintenance periods.