Television in Bulgaria

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Television in Bulgaria was

and others operate the biggest and most popular media outlets in the country.

Terrestrial

In 1954, a team at the Machine and Electrotechnics Institute in Sofia (today called the

Russian Revolution

of 1917. The experimental channel of the MEI did not air anything but a test chart on that day, although it did show a greeting to the new Sofia Television Station three times after 19:05. The MEI channel continued to operate until late 1960, when the team started working on the future introduction of color television.

The new channel, later referred to as "Bulgarian Television" (BT) used the

, covering a large area of the country. BNT, from 1964, began broadcasting news, programmes and movies in monochrome to serve the rising number of viewers in Bulgaria. Later, more transmitters and retranslators were placed in various cities, towns and villages around the country.

Programming was controlled and influenced by the Bulgarian Communist Party-run government in this time, as was usual in the Eastern Bloc. The first popular program were the news, which were titled "Around the World and at Home" ("По света и у нас", with "at home" meaning in this case "in our country"), a name which is used to this day. The news' trademark "spinning globe" opening, first animated in 1961, is also still used (albeit highly modified). Other popular shows started around this time were the children's block "Good Night, Children" ("Лека нощ, деца", still in use), television theatre programs, the various sport events which were broadcast live from around the world, and music programs like the regular New Year celebration shows. Foreign programming in the early years was limited to mostly Soviet Union productions, as well as some direct rebroadcasts of Soviet television programming.

In 1972, the first color broadcast was made, again of a manifestation. The SECAM color system was used, because PAL was used in most western countries (except for France, where SECAM was invented). After several years, the entire programming was broadcast in color.

In 1974, the second channel of the Bulgarian Television was launched, with the original channel being called simply "first channel". Later, they were given on-screen logos and were named "

programmes.

Privately owned television channels started to appear immediately after the regime change. Most were associated with a cable television (

broadcasting is started.

Digital terrestrial television in Bulgaria

The

transponder in Sofia since 2004. First regular digital broadcast started on 1 March 2013, with a plan to terminate analog broadcasting on 1 September 2013. The Simulcast period (time between digital broadcast switch-on and analog broadcast switch-off) allowed people time to buy new integrated Digital TVs or set-top boxes. Standards chosen are DVB-T and MPEG4 AVC/H.264 compression format, while DVB-T2 would not be used for now. On 30 September 2013, the analog broadcasting was officially terminated, leaving the country with 96,2% of the population DVB-T broadcasting coverage.^[1]

Cable

Cable television (

) having a Bulgarian audio track.

Analogue broadcasting is still used by operators, and it was the only method used before 2004–2005. Since then, many of them started lowering the number of analogue channels in order to launch DVB-C transponders. However, because the monthly fee for the digital packages is higher, some subscribers choose to continue using the analogue service, although with less channels than before. Currently, the biggest cable operators provide DVB-C channels in the major cities and towns. As of 2009, analogue channels are usually the only service available in villages.

Satellite

Satellite channels from Bulgaria appeared prior to the existence of a DTH operator. The first channel to start broadcasting via satellite was

), dedicated to Bulgarians living abroad. Several other channels followed, including the musical channel MM.

Then, in 2003, Bulsatcom became the first Bulgarian DTH operator, offering initially a limited amount of channels on

, which has for a long time distributed certain Bulgarian TV and radio channels.

Generally, Bulgarian television companies do not require a high fee for their channels' availability to viewers (some have no fee at all), but because of licensing restrictions of foreign programming, most satellite channels are encrypted, so that distribution outside Bulgaria can be limited. Free-to-view channels carry less (or none at all) such programming, airing for example music or locally produced programs only. Currently, most channels that broadcast nationally are available via satellite.

List of television channels

List of television channels in Bulgaria

Name	Logo	Type	Launched	Former name	Sister channel(s)	Website	Owner	Headquarters	Picture format	Audio lang.	Online	Terrestrial	Satellite	Cable	IPTV
BNT 1		news	26.12.1959	BT (1959–1975) BT1 (1975–1992) Kanal 1 (1992–2008)	BNT 4 BNT 2 BNT 3	www.bnt.bg	Bulgarian National Television	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y http://tv.bnt.bg/bnt1 (Bulgaria only)	MUX3 MUX BUL12-1	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
BNT 2		news and culture	01.01.1974 (original channel) 16.10.2011	BТ2 (1975–1992) Efir 2 (1992–2000) BNT Sever BNT Pirin BNT Plovdiv BNT More BNT Sofia	BNT 4 BNT 1 BNT 3	www.bnt.bg/bnt2	Bulgarian National Television	Rousse, Blagoevgrad	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y http://tv.bnt.bg/bnt2 (Bulgaria only)	MUX3	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
BNT 3		sport	06.02.2014	BNT HD (2014–2018)	BNT 1 BNT 2 BNT 4	www.bnt.bg/bnt3	Bulgarian National Television	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG ЕN	Y http://tv.bnt.bg/bnt3/ (Bulgaria only)	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
BNT 4		world news	02.05.1999	TV Bulgaria (1999–2008) BNT Sat (2008–2010) BNT World (2010–2018)	BNT 1 BNT 2 BNT 3	www.bnt.bg/bnt4	Bulgarian National Television	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG ЕN	Y http://tv.bnt.bg/bnt4/	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
bTV		news	01.06.2000		RING	www.btv.bg	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y https://btvplus.bg/live/ (Bulgaria only)	MUX2	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
bTV Action		news	22.01.2011	TOP TV (1998–2006) CTN (2006–2007) TV2 (2007–2009) PRO.BG (2009–2011)	RING	www.btv.bg/action	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y voyo.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
bTV Comedy		movie comedy	01.10.2009	TV Triada (1997–2005) GTV (2005–2009)	RING	www.btv.bg/comedy	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	Y voyo.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
bTV Cinema		movie	07.12.2009		RING	www.btv.bg/cinema	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	Y voyo.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
bTV Story		movie	28.01.2012	bTV Lady (2012–2023)	RING	www.btv.bg/story	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	Y voyo.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
RING		sport	12.05.1998	RTV Ring + Ring TV RING.BG	bTV bTV Action bTV Comedy bTV Cinema bTV Story	www.ring.bg	CME (Central European Media Enterprises)	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y voyo.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Nova TV		news	16.07.1994		Kino Nova Diema Family Nova News Nova Sport Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	nova.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	Y http://live.novatv.bg	MUX2	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Nova News		news	04.01.2021	Sofia Cable Kanal 3	Nova TV Nova Sport Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	www.nova.bg/news	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y http://www.nova.bg/news/live	MUX2	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Diema		movie	15.05.1999	Diema+ (1999–2007)	Nova Television Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	www.diema.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	N	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Diema Family		movie	01.08.1999	Alexandra TV (1999–2006)	Nova Television Diema Sport Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	diemafamily.novatv.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	N	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Kino Nova		movie	11.08.2003	Diema 2 (2003–2011)	Nova Television Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	www.kinonova.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD	BG	N	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Nova Sport		sport	30.04.2010	ММ (1997–2010)	Nova Television Diema Sport Diema Sport 2 Diema Sport 3	sport.novatv.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	N	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Diema Sport		sport	21.02.2015	Diema Extra (2005–2007)	Nova Television Nova News Nova Sport	www.diemasport.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	N	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Diema Sport 2		sport	08.08.2015	Diema Extra (2005–2007)	Nova Television Nova News Nova Sport	www.diemasport.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y http://play.diemaxtra.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y
Diema Sport 3		sport	01.07.2021	Diema Extra (2005–2007)	Nova Television Nova News Nova Sport	www.diemasport.bg	United Group	Sofia	16:9 SD/HD	BG	Y http://play.diemaxtra.bg	N	Intelsat 38 @ 45.1°E	Y	Y

Accessibility
	— free-to-air TV channels		— encrypted TV channels		— encrypted package channels
Picture format
	— 4:3 SD		— 4:3/16:9 SD		— 16:9 SD		— 16:9 HD
Channel types
poly	— general, polythematic	info	— news, info	docu	— documentary, science	kids	— kids, cartoons
comedy	— series, entertainment	film	— films	sport	— sport	music	— music
hoby	— ecology, kitchen, hoby, reality	unconv	— politics, religion and unconventional

Terrestrial (free-to-air channels with national coverage)

• BNT 1, state-owned TV network
• BNT 2; state-owned TV network
• BNT 3, state-owned TV network
• ORT
• Efir 2
• Bulgaria ON AIR, part of the Investor.BG group of channels

Pay television

• Bloomberg TV Bulgaria
• TV+
• TVart
• Military TV Channel [bg] (Bulgarian: Военен телевизионен канал, ВТК) (operated by the Bulgarian military)
• Balkanika TV
• City TV
• E-Kids
• Code Health TV
• Code Fashion TV
• VTV
• Box TV
• Fan TV
• Folklor TV
• F+
• Film+
• Sport+
• HD+
• Hobby TV
• BG TOP Music
• Vivacom Arena
• Planeta TV
• Planeta Folk
• Planet Fun
• Rodina TV
• SKAT
• Travel HD
• The Voice
• Travel TV
• Community TV
• Euronews Bulgaria (Formerly TV Europa)
• 7/8 TV

Foreign channels translated into Bulgarian

Channels marked with an asterisk (*) have a Bulgarian audio channel, all others have Bulgarian subtitles only Channels marked with an plus (+) are broadcasting in HD

• Animal Planet
  +
• Star Crime (ex FOX Crime)*+
• Star Life (ex FOX Life)*+
• Star Channel (ex FOX)*+
• AXN*
• AXN Black*
• AXN White*
• Cinemax*+
• Cinemax 2
  *+
• Discovery Channel*+
• Discovery Science
  +
• Investigation Discovery
  *+
• TLC
  *
• Eurosport*+
• Eurosport 2*+
• HBO
  *+
• HBO
  2*+
• HBO
  3 (ex HBO Comedy)*+
• National Geographic Channel
  *+
• National Geographic Wild
  *+
• Travel Channel (UK)
  *+
• TV1000+
• Viasat Nature+ (as Viasat History/Nature HD)
• Viasat History+ (as Viasat History/Nature HD)
• Viasat Explorer
  *
• Fine Living Network
• CBS Reality
• Disney Channel
  *+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)
• Cartoon Network
  *+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)
• Cartoonito*+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)
• Nickelodeon
  *+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)
• Nicktoons
  *+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)
• Nick Jr.
  *+ (its broadcasting in HD only as on demand)

Most viewed channels

Source: Nielsen Admosphere Bulgaria, December 2022 ^[4]

Position	Channel	Share of total viewing (%)
1	bTV	22.96
2	Nova TV	17.31
3	BNT 1	7.76
4	Diema Family	3.87
5	Diema	3.33
6	Kino Nova	2.62
7	bTV Cinema	2.07
8	FOX Crime	1.97
9	Nova News	1.66
10	bTV Action	1.49
11	bTV Comedy	1.39
12	bTV Story	1.21
13	FOX	0.90
14	National Geographic	0.82
15	BNT 3	0.75
16	Diema Sport 3	0.70
17	Nick Jr. Channel	0.67
18	Nickelodeon	0.66
19	Discovery Channel	0.65
20	Eurocom	0.65

See also

• List of Bulgarian television shows

References

External links

• History of television in Bulgaria
• Council for Electronic Media of Bulgaria
• Communications Regulation Commission of Bulgaria