El Watania 1, also known as Télévision Tunisienne 1, is the first
Tunisia
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
n public national television channel. It is owned and operated by
Télévision Tunisienne (formerly
ERTT). Formerly named RTT (1966–1983), RTT 1 (1983–1992), TV7 (1992–1997), Tunis 7 (1997–2008), Tunisie 7 (2008–2011), it has been known as El Watania 1 since 2011.
History
The first televised broadcast in Tunisia dates from December 15, 1963 on the occasion of the solemn celebration of the evacuation of Bizerte; the retransmission is carried out with the technical assistance of
Italian television
Television in Italy was Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940, all ...
.
[Fethi Houidi et Ridha Najar, Presse, radio et télévision en Tunisie, Tunis, Maison tunisienne de l'édition, 1983, p. 113.] In 1964,
Mohamed Mzali was appointed general manager of the RTT (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne) and was responsible for launching national television. In October of the same year, the RTT retransmitted from
Bizerte
Bizerte (, ) is the capital and largest city of Bizerte Governorate in northern Tunisia. It is the List of northernmost items, northernmost city in Africa, located north of the capital Tunis. It is also known as the last town to remain under Fr ...
the congress of the
Destourian Socialist Party, the presentation of which was entrusted to
Malika Ben Khamsa.
The first experimental broadcast, which took place on October 1, 1965 for an hour and a quarter, was accessible to the inhabitants of Tunis and its suburbs using the Boukornine VHF transmitter which broadcast Italian television programs. On October 29 of the same year, a second experimental session lasted two and a quarter hours.
Each time, music or plays were broadcast live. On October 31, the experimental services broadcast the first football match in its history live from the
Chedly-Zouiten Stadium. During the three experimental sessions, the Italian broadcasts are temporarily interrupted.
From January 7, 1966, with the commissioning of the
Zaghouan transmitter, broadcasts were more regular and the Tunisian press began to publish the RTT program schedule, alongside that of Italian television.
On May 31 of the same year, Tunisian Television, known as RTT (إ ت ت), was officially inaugurated by President
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba (3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian politician and statesman who served as the Head of Government of Tunisia, prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia from 1956 to 1957, and then as the first president of Tunisia from 1 ...
. The first announcer to appear on screen in its regular broadcasts was Naziha Maghrebi, whose first appearance was plagued by a small technical issue where the image was upside-down for a few seconds.
In 1967, a year after its birth, Tunisian Television broadcast three hours of programs a day: two are in Arabic and one in French. In this context, it is developing cooperation with French-speaking television, in particular
Télévision Suisse Romande, which provided it with programs and welcomed trainees in its Geneva studios.
The same year, it broadcasts and retransmits on Mediterranean television the
1967 Mediterranean Games organized in Tunisia. During the first two years of broadcasts, not having a video recorder, the RTT broadcasts its programs, including fiction, live.
The first production vans for color production were acquired in 1975; the channel began to produce color programs at the end of 1976. In 1977, it broadcast in color the
1977 FIFA World Youth Championship organized in Tunis. In June of the same year, the film laboratory of the RTT began to develop color films. The sale of color television sets skyrocketed during the
1978 FIFA World Cup
The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...
, where Tunisia took part.
RTT was renamed RTT 1 in 1983, following the creation of RTT 2. Television advertising started in December 1987.
With the change in the presidency of the republic on November 7, 1987, the channel became TV7 (قناة 7) in 1992, then Tunis 7 in 1997. The regime then intended, through this choice, to associate television with the new political configuration that gets ready. On May 23, 2008, Tunis 7 took the French name of Tunisie 7 until the fall of President
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
References
External links
Official website
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