The Bulgarian National Television (Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, Balgarska natsionalna televizia) or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgaria. BNT was founded in 1959 and started broadcasting on December 26 of the same year.[1] It was the first television service to broadcast on the territory of Bulgaria.
BNT is a member of International Radio and Television Organisation (to 31 December 1992), European Broadcasting Union (from 1 January 1993), EGTA, IMZ, CIRCOM Regional, FIAT and BBLF.
History
The first television broadcast in Bulgaria was in 1959. The archive had recorders, photos and movies which were open to the public from the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. From 1964, BNT began broadcasting news, programmes and movies in monochrome to serve the rising number of viewers in Bulgaria.[3]
BNT began broadcasting in colour in 1973 using the French SECAM colour system after series of experimental broadcasting since 1969. The second channel, BT2, saw its emergence the following year.