The Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is the national

public 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 ...

of the Republic of Mauritius, that is the islands of Mauritius,

Rodrigues Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. R ...

, and

Agaléga Agaléga (french: îles Agaléga) is a dependency of Mauritius which consists of two outer islands located in the Indian Ocean, about north of Mauritius Island. The population of the islands as at July 2011 was estimated at 289. The islands h ...

. The headquarters of the MBC is found at Réduit, Moka, it also operates a station in Rodrigues. The MBC programmes are broadcast in 12 languages, notably

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Creole,

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 ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

, Marathi, Mandarin/

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

, and

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

, it provides 17 television channels in Mauritius, 4 in Rodrigues and 2 in Agaléga and 7 radio channels.

Overview

The MBC operates under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office. It is established as a body corporate under Act No. 7 of 1964. According to the provisions of the Act, its main objectives are to provide independent and impartial broadcasting services of information, education, culture, and entertainment in different languages taught or spoken in the country, and to ensure that the broadcasting services cater for the aspirations, needs, and tastes of the population in the matters of information, education, culture, and entertainment. Opposition parties and media commentators often criticise the MBC for pro-government bias. The MBC is a member of the Association des Radios et Télévisions de l’Océan Indien (ARTOI),

Commonwealth Broadcasting Association The Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) is a representative body for public service broadcasters throughout the Commonwealth, founded in 1945. A not-for-profit non-government organisation, the CBA is funded by subscriptions from 102 mem ...

, and an associate member at the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

, the

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 287 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 bil ...

, and the South African Broadcasting Association and of the Conseil International des Radios-Télévisions d’Expression Française.

List of MBC Channels

Television

Radio

History

It was established as a body corporate on 8 June 1964 under the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation Ordinance no. 7 (1964). Prior to that date, it operated as a Government Service under the name of Mauritius Broadcasting Service. The original ordinance establishing the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation was amended and consolidated by Acts of Parliament: Act no. 65 of 1970, Act no. 22 of 1982, and Act no. 65 of 1985. These amendments were necessary to accommodate interalia changes at both technological and social levels as well as to satisfy the aspirations of all segments of the Mauritian nation. TV broadcasts started on a pilot basis in 1964 with the installation of three repeater stations at Fort George, Mount Thérése, and Jurançon. On 8 February 1965, television was officially launched with a daily evening transmission of about three hours. The first live local program was broadcast on the occasion of the visit of Princess Alexandra in 1968. The phasing out process of black and white television started in 1973 and indeed the OCAMM Conference which was held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute in the same year was broadcast live in colour (

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

system). By 1978 the MBC was fully equipped for the broadcast of colour programs. The MBC started its operation in

on 7 November 1987. A second channel was launched on 30 July 1990, the MBC 2. The MBC 3 became operational in March 1996. In 2005, the MBC was the first public television broadcaster in Africa to launch Digital Terrestrial Television channels. In 2007, the MBC also extended its digitalized service to the islands of

and

. In 2011, the MBC moved from its former headquarters in Forest Side, Curepipe to Moka. The Bhojpuri Channel and Senn Kreol were launched in January 2013. In 2012, the President of the Republic stated that the MBC is run with a mindset of unfairness, partiality, and is not worthy of a democratic nation. On 14 November 2016, MBC rebranded the logo of its 17 channels and introduced a standardised logo with different colour variations for each channel. Additionally, new onscreen graphics were introduced. MBC broadcasts many of its own shows, promoting the country and the physical and mental health of the people of Mauritius. On 1 December 2016, the MBC released th
MBC play
app, which is still under development, on Google Play Store, allowing users around the globe to stream Live TV & radio channels of the corporation. Later on, after releasing a stable version, this app is also expected to be available on the Apple App Store.

References