Kringvarp Føroya (KvF) (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: ''Broadcasting Service of the Faroe Islands'') is the national
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves 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 ...
company of the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
. It was founded on 1 January 2005 after a merger of the national radio and television networks, Útvarp Føroya and Sjónvarp Føroya.
History
Útvarp Føroya
Útvarp Føroya (ÚF) (English: ''Radio of the Faroe Islands'') was founded in 1957, under the station's first director Axel Tórgarð. Niels Juel Arge took over the position in 1960 and remained until 1990. Prior to the establishment of Útvarp Føroya, the
Faroese people
Faroese people or Faroe Islanders ( fo, føroyingar; da, færinger) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to the Faroe Islands. The Faroese are of mixed Norse and Gaelic origins.
About 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countrie ...
could only listen to foreign radio stations. These included the
National Norwegian Radio Station, often referred to as ''Norðmaðurin'' ("The Norwegian" or "The man from Norway"), and the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
. These stations were mainly used for daily weather forecasts.
Sjónvarp Føroya
Sjónvarp Føroya (SvF) (English: ''Television of the Faroe Islands'') was founded in 1984. It was the only public TV station in the country, and broadcast some content in
Faroese.
The history of SvF goes back to the 1960s. In 1969, the Faroese parliament (
Løgting
The Løgting (pronounced ; da, Lagtinget) is the unicameral parliament of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory within the Danish Realm.
The name literally means "''Law Thing''"—that is, a law assembly—and derives from Old Norse ''l ...
) decided to create an organisation for developing TV facilities on the islands under public law. A 1978 law set into motion the establishment of the network, which was founded as ''Sjónvarp Føroya'' in 1981. A furniture store in the capital
Tórshavn
Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...
was converted into a TV studio in 1983. On 1 April 1984 the first Faroese programme was launched; however, private local TV associations had been transmitting for six years. The regular operation of SVF started on 1 September of that same year.
In spring 1985, the former freelancers of Faroese TV were engaged as staff by the Faroese government. Since 1990, other nearby buildings have been bought in order to enhance the network's premises.
In December 2002, the Faroe Islands became the first country in the world to completely disconnect of its analogue television signals, which had used the
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue 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 ...
standard, in favour of the digital
DVB-T
DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Febr ...
standard.
By law, SvF had a goal of broadcasting one-third of its programmes in Faroese. Other programmes were mostly taken from
Danmarks Radio
DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterp ...
(DR) and were subtitled, with
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
audio. In 2003, 27 percent of the SvF's programmes were in Faroese. Apart from children's programmes, SVF's own production consisted mainly of news and topical magazine items.
Kringvarp Føroya
In 2005, the SvF and ÚF were merged into a new company, Kringvarp Føroya, which is funded by a combination of
television licence
A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...
fees,
commercials
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
, and a bingo (called Gekkurin, or "the Joker"). The television section of the Kringvarp Føroya shows only one channel, with some programming coming from DR and
TV 2 (
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
). It also produces its own content, including Faroese news, which is called ''Dagur og Vika'' (Day and Week); children's TV; and some cultural and sports broadcasting. Additional stations are available from Televarpið, the only local pay-TV provider, which is a
digital terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
service.
Satellite TV
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
from foreign providers is also popular.
See also
*
Media of the Faroe Islands
The Faroese mass media consists of several newspapers, radio stations, magazines, as well as a local TV station, Kringvarp Føroya.
The first Digital Terrestrial Television service was switched on during December 2002, broadcasting from seven tra ...
References
External links
Kringvarp Føroya Homepage(with Faroese TV programmes for download)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kringvarp Foroya
Radio in the Faroe Islands
Television in the Faroe Islands
Television stations in Denmark
Publicly funded broadcasters
Radio stations established in 1957
Mass media companies established in 1957
Television channels and stations established in 1984
1957 establishments in the Faroe Islands
1984 establishments in the Faroe Islands
2005 establishments in the Faroe Islands
Tórshavn
Mass media companies of the Faroe Islands
State media
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