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 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: Féd� ...
, 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—al ...
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 is the
Dutch-language 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, 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 Unit ...
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'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 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: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to event ...
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 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 wi ...
'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—al ...
.
''Bye Bye Belgium''
On 13 December 2006, at 20:21
CET (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 cultu ...
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, while Flemish separatists waved the
flag of Flanders 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 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, 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 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 radioiso ...
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 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 med ...
to
Proximus, 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 appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
worldwide as a participant in francophone channel;
* On digital terrestrial television using DVB-T on UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
and VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below 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—al ...
.
Current channels
* (''Channel One''): RTBF's main channel television, formerly known as RTBF1; began in 1953 on VHF channel 10; in PAL 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 ...
(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
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 ...
, 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 physica ...
: and are available on several Belgian mobile networks.
* Video game consoles: 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 and Xbox One
Radio channels
The RTBF broadcasts radio channels in either analogue format ( FM and digital format (using DAB
DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to:
Dictionaries
* '' Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies
* ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949
Places
* Dą ...
and DVB-T). 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 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
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