Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep
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The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep, or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders (northern part of Belgium).
Between 1960 until 1991, VRT was called BRT (Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep). It is the successor of NIR (Belgisch Nationaal Instituut voor Radio-omroep), which was responsible for radio and television broadcasts from 1930 (and until 1953 for TV) until 1960. Politicians thought the name was no longer appropriate. BRT was only broadcasting Dutch language programs whereas RTBF was only broadcasting French language programs. That is why in 1991 the name BRTN (Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep Nederlandstalige Uitzendingen) was introduced. When the statute of BRTN changed in 1998 the name was changed to VRT.
This reorganisation changed the public broadcaster, since the TV monopoly and the creation of VTM, into a dynamic and powerful service that is currently (2004) the market leader. Part of the success is the use of external production houses such as Woestijnvis that created successful formats such as The Mole (De Mol).
Since 1950 VRT is together with its french counterpart RTBF, a joint member of the European Broadcasting Union. EBU is the European organisation of public broadcasters that also organises the Eurovision Song Contest.
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[edit] Television channels
Television channels are transmitted from terrestrial antennas using UHF and VHF, digitally over DVB-T (in Flanders). They are also available on cable: analog on all Belgian cable tv operators and digitally on Telenet and Interkabel Digitaal (IN-DI). On ADSL lines they are available by Belgacom.
[edit] Current channels
- één (Dutch: one), the main channel, formerly known as VRT TV 1
- Ketnet, the children's channel
- Canvas, the quality TV channel
Ketnet and Canvas share a single tv channel, the former broadcasting from noon till the early afternoon, and the latter in the evening and night, the channel formerly known as BRTN TV 2.
[edit] Previous channels
- Sporza, the sports channel
Sporza was active as a separate channel during the summer of 2004, but has been removed from the air starting September 2004. Normal sports-programmes on the other channels now also carry the name Sporza due to the huge popularity of the channel. The radio station 927 Live for sports-programmes is now called Sporza. The online sports-news also goes by the name Sporza.
[edit] Radio channels
The VRT broadcasts radio channels in either analog format (FM and AM) and digital format (using DAB and DVB-T). All channels are also broadcast live over the Internet.
International broadcasting is done via VRT's Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (RVi).
[edit] Analog and digital channels
- Radio 1, information and cultural channel
- Radio 2, popular channel
- Studio Brussel, young and alternative channel
- Donna, young and popular music channel
- Klara, classical music channel
- Sporza, sports radio channel (AM only)
- RVi or Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal, the channel for foreign people in Belgium and for Belgian people in foreign countries (AM only, on various wavelengths)
[edit] Digital-only channels
- Klara continuo, classical music radio channel without talks
- Donna HitBits, young and popular music channel without talks
- Nieuws+, latest news programme continuously repeated
They also have a TMC service transmitted on Radio 2.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
