Public service broadcasting in the principality began on 26 October 1989 after the General Council of Andorra decided a national broadcasting organisation should be set up. As a result, the Organisme de Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra (ORTA) was formed and radio station Ràdio Nacional d'Andorra (RNA) began broadcasting in December 1990. Andorra Televisió (ATV), Andorra's first television channel began in 1995. ORTA was funded by the Andorran government. All programming on both RNA and ATV was produced by independent companies until 1997 when ORTA began producing all of its own programming. ORTA was replaced by the current organisation, Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra S.A. (RTVA), on 13 April 2000.[1] RTVA took full control of both RNA and ATV. RTVA is also funded by the government. Advertising provides additional revenue. Its current director-general is Francesc Robert. RTVA has been an active member of the European Broadcasting Union since 2002 and has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest each year since 2004.;[2][3] however, in 2012 it was believed to be due to withdraw from the EBU because of financial problems.[4]
The broadcaster has to compete with TV and radio stations from both France and Spain whose transmissions can easily be picked up in the principality.
Channels
Andorra television The national television channel of Andorra.Programming
ATV broadcasts a range of programming including sports, music, films and magazine shows as well as the daily children's strand Club Piolet. The flagship news programme ATV Noticies is produced and broadcast three times a day, with bulletins at 1345, 2100 and prior to closedown. Regular live parliamentary coverage is also broadcast. ATV usually broadcasts between the hours of 0730 and 2345 each day with information pages displayed after closedown.RNA broadcasts mostly music although news bulletins air on the hour, every hour. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ATV and RNA are streamed online for free on RTVA's website, although the ATV stream is sometimes replaced with a test card due to copyright restrictions on some programming.