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The National Media Authority (), formerly known as Egyptian State Broadcasting (ESU; ), is the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government. It is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ABSU).

History

Egyptian Radio began broadcasting on 31 May 1934 in agreement with the Marconi Company. The General Manager of the station for the period was Said Basha Lotfi who presided over the station from May 1934 to December 1947. In December 1947, the contract with Marconi was suspended in favour of an Egyptian national broadcasting station. The station is known also for its call "This is Cairo" (). It is considered the "First Program" () of the ERTU.

Later on three main new radio channels were added, namely the pan-Arab Voice of the Arabs () in 1953, Egyptian Radio's Second Programme () in 1957, and the pan-Arab Middle East Radio () in 1964. All four stations broadcast on high powered medium wave transmitters covering most of the Middle East and North and East Africa.

Egyptian television began broadcasting six hours daily on 21 July 1960, with a state-run channel that held a monopoly on terrestrial broadcasts.

In 1971, a new decree established the Arab Radio and Television Union, and created four distinct sectors: radio, television, engineering, and finance, each of which had a chairman who reported directly to the minister of information. The name of the Union was changed to the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the name by which it is still known. Today, its total daily broadcast time on its various channels amounts to 490 hours.

Already in 1950 its predecessor, the Egyptian State Broadcasting (), was one of the founding members of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. After the admittance of the Israel Broadcasting Service in 1958, it cancelled its active memberships, as did the Syrian Broadcasting Services. It was readmitted as an active member on 1 January 1985.

Under previous secularist regimes, women employees wearing hijabs were not allowed on-screen until 2 September 2012, following the inauguration of the Morsi government.

Services & subsidiaries

The NMA is an Egyptian SOE that runs a large spectrum of radio, television and satellite channels, in addition to television and film production facilities. It does this directly as well as through a host of companies that include:

* Egyptian Media Production City Co SAE
*Sono Cairo
* Egyptian Satellites Co SAE (Nilesat)
* Nile Radio Network

Radio

General stations

* General Programme Radio () or Egyptian Radio – established in 1934 as the main channel of the network
*Voice of the Arabs () – established in 1953 as a pan-Arab station
*Second Program () – established in 1957 (now replaced and converted into the Cultural Radio)
*Middle East Radio () – established in 1964 as a pan-Arab station
*European Program Radio () – broadcasting in English, French, Greek, Italian and German

Specialized (thematic) stations

*Cultural Radio () – replaced the Second Program
*Youth and Sports Radio () – established in 1975
*Radio Greater Cairo () – established in 1981
*Songs Radio () – established in 2000
*News and Music Radio ()
*Radio Masr or () or Egypt Radio – established in 2009
*Al Qur'an al Karim Radio () – Muslim religious broadcasting
*Educational Radio ()
*Voice of Palestine ()

Regional programming radio stations

*North of Saaeed Radio ()
*Nile Valley Radio ()
*Middle Delta Radio ()
*Radio Alexandria ()

International stations

*Radio Cairo (International) including Radio Cairo World Service 1 to 7 (various channels, shortwave and satellite)

Television

National

* ERTU 1 – Generalist and informative programming. It began its broadcasts in 1960.
* ERTU 2 – focused on fiction, entertainment and current affairs programming, launched in 1961.
* Al Masriya – Channel aimed at the Egyptian diaspora, available since 1990.

Regional

There are six state-owned broadcast and satellite channels in Egypt:
* Six regional channels, each providing specialized services for a number of governorates:
**Cairo Channel: broadcasting from Cairo and covering Greater Cairo governorates, i.e. Cairo, Giza and Qalioubia.
**Alexandria Channel: broadcasting from Alexandria and covering Alexandria, Al Buhayrah and parts of Matrouh.
**Canal Channel: broadcasting from Ismailia and covering Suez Canal governorates, i.e. Ismailia, Suez and Port Said.
**Delta Channel: broadcasting from Tanta and covering Central Delta governorates, i.e. Al Gharbiyah, Al Minufiyah, Ad Daqahliyah, Kafr ash Shaykh and Dimyat.
**Upper Channel: broadcasting from Minya and covering Northern Upper Egypt governorates, i.e. Minya, El-Fayoum, Beni Suef and Asiut.
**Thebes Channel: broadcasting from Aswan and covering Southern Upper Egypt governorates, i.e. Suhag, Qena, Al Uqsur and Aswan.

As of 2005, the Cairo frequencies for the two ERTU channels, the two Nile TV channels and the networks for the governorates were as follows: ERTU 1 channel 5; ERTU 2 channel 9; ERTU 3 channel 7; ERTU 4 channel 40; ERTU 5 channel 46; ERTU 6 channel 43; ERTU 7 channel 34; ERTU 8 channel 26; Nile TV channel 22; Nile News channel 38.

Nile Television Network

Nilesat allowed for the launch of several specialized TV channels in addition to Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC) and Nile TV. All are owned by the Egyptian state.

Specialized channels include:

*Al Nile
*Nile Culture channel
*Nile Comedy channel
*Nile Drama channel, specialized in Drama, mainly movies and TV series.
*Nile Educational channels, several channels for primary, preparatory, secondary, medical and language education.
*Nile Family channel
*Nile Sports channel
*Nile Life channel, specialized in various forms of entertainment mainly concerts, music videos, contests and some talk shows.
*Tanweer channel

See also

* List of radio stations in Egypt

References

External links

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{{Authority control

1971 establishments in Egypt
Publicly funded broadcasters
European Broadcasting Union members
Television stations in Egypt
Arabic-language television stations
Television channels and stations established in 1971
Mass media in Cairo
State media
Government agencies of Egypt