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The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a
public service broadcaster
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 ...
delivering radio and television services to the
French-speaking Community of Belgium
In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Fédé ...
, in
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
and
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. Its counterpart in the
Flemish Community
The Flemish Community ( nl, Vlaamse Gemeenschap ; french: Communauté flamande ; german: Flämische Gemeinschaft ) is one of the three institutional communities of Belgium, established by the Belgian constitution and having legal responsibilitie ...
is the
Dutch-language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' ...
VRT (''Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie''), and in the
German-speaking Community
The German-speaking Community (german: links=no, Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft, or DG; french: links=no, Communauté germanophone; nl, links=no, Duitstalige Gemeenschap), since 2017 also known as East Belgium (german: links=no, Ostbelgien), is ...
it is
BRF (''Belgischer Rundfunk'').
RTBF operates five television channels – ', ', ', ' and ' together with a number of radio channels, ', ', ', ', ', and '.
The organisation's headquarters in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, which is shared with
VRT, is sometimes referred to colloquially as ''Reyers''. This comes from the name of the avenue where RTBF/VRT's main building is located, the .
History
Originally named the Belgian National Broadcasting Institute (french: INR, Institut national belge de radiodiffusion; nl, NIR, Belgisch Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep), the state-owned broadcasting organisation was established by law on 18 June 1930, and from 1938 was housed in
Le Flagey
The Flagey Building (french: Bâtiment Flagey, nl, Flageygebouw) also known as Radio House (french: Maison de la Radio, nl, Radiohuis) is a building located in Ixelles, a municipality of Brussels, Belgium, housing the Flagey cultural centre. ...
, formerly known as the Maison de la Radio, a purpose-built building in the
"paquebot" style of
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architecture.
On 14 June 1940 the INR was forced to cease broadcasting as a result of the German invasion. The German occupying forces, who now oversaw its management, changed the INR's name to '. A number of INR personnel were able to relocate to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's studios in London from where they broadcast as '' / '' under the ' (RNB) established by the
Belgian government in exile
The Belgian Government in London (french: Gouvernement belge à Londres, nl, Belgische regering in Londen), also known as the Pierlot IV Government, was the government in exile of Belgium between October 1940 and September 1944 during World W ...
's Ministry of Information.
At the end of
the war the INR and the RNB coexisted until 14 September 1945, when a Royal Decree merged the two and restored the INR's original mission. The INR was one of 23 broadcasting organisations which founded the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
in 1950. Television broadcasting from Brussels began in 1953, with two hours of programming each day. In 1960 the INR was subsumed into RTB (') and moved to new quarters at the Reyers building in 1967. RTB's first broadcast in colour, ' (a gardening and nature programme), was transmitted in 1971. Two years later, RTB began broadcasting
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
in colour.
In 1977, broadcasting became a concern for Belgium's
language communities, rather than the national government as a whole. Accordingly, the French-language section of RTB became RTBF (') and a second television channel was set up with the name . In 1979 became .
Along with French channels , , and Swiss channel
TSR, RTBF jointly established the European French-speaking channel in 1984. On 21 March 1988, became .
On 27 September 1989 a joint-venture company of RTBF and
Vivendi
Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
was set up with the name , which subsequently became ' in May 1995. In 1993, was replaced by and .
In mid-January 2010, RTBF adopted the new branding of RTBF.be in its main logo. The change was made because of the growing importance of new media; the ".be" suffix stresses these new developments.
On 11 June 2013, RTBF was one of the few European public broadcasters to join in condemning the closure of
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
's public broadcaster,
ERT.
By 2011, the analogue systems for RTBF.be were planned to be phased out for
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
.
''Bye Bye Belgium''
On 13 December 2006, at 20:21
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
(19:21
UTC), RTBF replaced an edition of its regular current affairs programme ' with a
fake special news report in which it was claimed that
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
had proclaimed independence, effectively dissolving the Belgian state. The programme had been preceded by a caption reading "This may not be fiction", which was repeated intermittently as a subtitle to the images on screen. After the first half-hour of the 90-minute broadcast, however – by which point RTBF.be's response line had been flooded with calls – this was replaced with a caption reading "This is fiction".
The video featured images of news reporters standing in front of the
Flemish Parliament
The Flemish Parliament (Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural communi ...
, while Flemish separatists waved the
flag of Flanders
The flag of Flanders, called the ''Vlaamse Leeuw'' ("Flemish Lion") or ''leeuwenvlag'' ("Lion flag"), is the flag of the Flemish Community and Flemish Region in Belgium. The flag was officially adopted by the Cultural Council for the Dutch Cultura ...
behind them. Off to the side, Francophone and Belgian nationalists were waving Belgian flags. The report also featured footage of
King Albert and
Queen Paola
Paola (born Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria;AlthougThe Belgian Monarchy websiteattributes the title of "Princess" to Queen Paola prior to marriage, Burke's Peerage 1973, The Descendants of Louis XIII 1999, ''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels'' 200 ...
getting on a military jet to
Congo, a former Belgian colony.
RTBF justified the hoax on the grounds that it raised the issue of
Flemish nationalism
The Flemish Movement ( nl, Vlaamse Beweging) is an umbrella term which encompasses various political groups in the Belgian region of Flanders and, less commonly, in French Flanders. Ideologically, it encompasses groups which have sought to promo ...
, but others felt that it raised the issue of about how much the public can trust the press.
Logo history
RTBF 1984.svg, RTBF's third logo from late 1982–1994
RTBF 1991.svg, RTBF's fourth logo from 1994–1997
RTBF logo old.svg, RTBF's fifth logo from 1997–2005
RTBF logo.png, RTBF's sixth and previous logo from 2005–2010.
Television channels
Television channels are transmitted:
* On
Hotbird
Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East.
Only digital ...
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
on , an encrypted pay satellite service.
* On cable: analogue and digital on all Belgian cable providers, as well as on cable in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
;
* On
DSL
Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...
lines through
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
to
Proximus
Proximus (stylised as pro⌘imus; formerly known as Belgacom Mobile) is the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies and is a part of Proximus Group (previously Belgacom Group). It competes with Orange Belgium and Base. ...
, Scarlet and Billi customers, as well as
PostTV in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
;
Included channels
PostTV
* On satellite free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
worldwide as a participant in francophone channel;
* On digital terrestrial television
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' ...
using 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 ...
on UHF and VHF frequencies in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
.
Current channels
* (''Channel One''): RTBF's main channel television, formerly known as RTBF1; began in 1953 on VHF channel 10; in 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 ...
color since 1973
* : formerly known as , , and ; began in 1977
* (''Channel Three''): the quality TV channel; began in 2007; there are no commercial adverts on this channel
* : in collaboration with the Franco-German TV network
Video on demand
The Video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
(VOD) offer of the RTBF is available on several platforms:
* Web: Free VOD has been collected under the RTBF brand since 2016. Offering Catch up TV, allowing viewers to see all programs from the RTBF channels during 7 days after broadcast.
* IDTV: Free catch up TV and pay VOD
* Mobile device
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
: and are available on several Belgian mobile networks.
* Video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s: PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
, PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
Radio channels
The RTBF broadcasts radio channels in either analogue format ( FM and digital format (using DAB and 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 ...
). All channels are also broadcast live over the Internet.
Analogue and digital
Digital-only channels
* : Focus on the "Golden Sixties"
* : Focus on music from the 1970s
* : Focus on music from the 1980s
* : Focus on music from the 1990s
* : Focus on Blues
* : Focus on Metal
* : Focus on Route 66 music
* : Focus on Soul
* : Web radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
for children from 8 to 13 years old.
* : Focus on new talents
* : Focus on relaxed music
* : Focus on urban music
They also have a TMC service transmitted on ''Classic 21''.
See also
* VRT
* List of television channels in Belgium
This list contains the Belgian television channels that are broadcast either terrestrially (DVB-T), via cable (Telenet, VOO and Numericable) or phone lines (Proximus), or via satellite (TV Vlaanderen and Télésat).
See also
* Television i ...
* Public Francophone Radios
The Public Francophone Radios (French: ''Radios francophones publiques'') is a group of French-speaking radio broadcasters comprising Radio France, Radio Canada, the Radio Télévision Suisse
Radio is the technology of signaling and communic ...
Notes and references
External links
*
{{Authority control
Television networks in Belgium
French-language television networks
Television channels in Belgium
Publicly funded broadcasters
French-language television in Belgium
European Broadcasting Union members
Radio stations established in 1930
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1977 establishments in Belgium
State media
Mass media in Brussels