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The Établissement de la Télévision Tunisienne (''TT'', French for Establishment of the Tunisian Television or simply Tunisian Television; in Arabic: مؤسسة التلفزة التونسية) is Tunisia's national state-owned
public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...
television broadcaster. The company was established by the country's president
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisian Arabic: , ; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali or Ezzine, was a Tunisian politician who served as the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tun ...
in August 2007, by dividing the country's former state broadcaster ERTT into separate companies for radio ( Radio Tunisienne) and television. Tunisian television operates two nationwide television channels and is an active member of the
European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) and the
Arab States Broadcasting Union The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU; ) is an Arab joint-action institution related to the League of Arab States and the Pan-Arab Association of Public Service and Commercial Broadcasters. Founded in February 1969 in Khartoum, ASBU is a profe ...
(ABSU).


Background

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, television made its appearance with the transmission of 
RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...
 broadcasts in the northeast of the country. From 1963, certain programs were broadcast by Tunisian public television on an experimental basis or on the occasion of special events. The first test broadcast took place in October 1965, with a program lasting 75 minutes. The following year, regular broadcasts began with the official opening of RTT (predecessor to ERTT) on 31 May 1966. Initially, the channel broadcast three hours a day, two hours in Arabic and one hour of French-language programs. In this context, it began developing cooperation with French-speaking television, in particular  Télévision Suisse Romande, which provided it with programs and welcomed trainees in its Geneva studios. By 1976, Tunisian television began broadcasting in color, and in June 1983, the channel changed its name to RTT 1, in connection with the establishment of the French language television channel (a collaboration between Tunisia's RTT and French broadcaster ORTF with programming from La deuxième chaîne (The Second Channel), later Antenne 2 following the breakup of ORTF and now
France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...
). RTT 2 (later replaced by Arabic language channel in 1990) was closed in 1994 and instead replaced by the youth channel Canal 21. French programming from France 2 continued to be aired until the end of October 1999. The two channels later changed their names several times and are currently El Watania 1 and El Watania 2 since 2011. From 2008, Tunisia began preparing its transition from analogue to
digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...
and the definitive switch takes place on 17 September 2015. Together with Tunisian state radio, the two television channels were subordinate to the former state broadcaster Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne (ERTT) from 1990, but in November 2006 President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisian Arabic: , ; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali or Ezzine, was a Tunisian politician who served as the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tun ...
decided to split ERTT into two separate companies: Établissement de la Radio Tunisienne and Établissement de la Télévision Tunisienne. The two companies were formally launched on 31 August 2007. Both ERTT successor companies are members of the EBU,
African Union of Broadcasting The African Union of Broadcasting (AUB, , , ) is a professional body composed of the national radio and television organizations of African states. The organization works to develop the African broadcast industry by encouraging the exchange of ind ...
(AUB) and
Arab States Broadcasting Union The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU; ) is an Arab joint-action institution related to the League of Arab States and the Pan-Arab Association of Public Service and Commercial Broadcasters. Founded in February 1969 in Khartoum, ASBU is a profe ...
(ASBU). In 1987, Tunisian television began broadcasting propaganda for the first time, following orders from the country's authorities. However, following the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
of 2011, the Tunisian media, including Télévision Tunisienne, have been given greater freedom to report and broadcast news and information. Among other things, the country's political opposition has been allowed to run on state-owned radio and television. The state still exercises great influence over the state channels, and in July 2017, the country's government suddenly fired its TV director Elyes Gharbi, allegedly because Télévision Tunisienne had a high over-consumption of money and declining viewership. However, the country's journalists' association believed that the dismissal violated Tunisian law and considered the dismissal a threat to the broadcaster's independence and freedom. Tunisian television previously occupied the premises initially reserved for  Radio Tunis in Lafayette (now Tunisian Radio House), before moving to its new headquarters in March 2010. The new premises, in the Mutuelleville district of Tunis, is built on eight levels (a garden level, a ground floor and six floors).


Channels

Tunisian television operates two nationwide television channels: * El Watania 1 (also known as Télévision Tunisienne 1) – the country's public channel, started in 1965 and with regular broadcasts from May 1966. Broadcasts news, sports, entertainment and family programs. Reaches 99.8 percent of the country's population. * El Watania 2 (also known as Télévision Tunisienne 2) – started in November 1994, as Canal 21, and broadcasts mainly cultural, drama and children's programs. In addition, the broadcaster operates a number of online platforms and services, including news and sport divisions.


See also

* Television in Tunisia * Mass media in Tunisia


References


External links

* * {{coord, 36.828167, N, 10.158431, E, display=title European Broadcasting Union members State media Mass media in Tunis Government-owned companies of Tunisia Television in Tunisia Publicly funded broadcasters 2007 establishments in Tunisia Mass media companies established in 2007