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The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep, or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders (northern part of Belgium).
Between 1960 until 1991, VRT was called BRT (Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep). It is the successor of NIR, which was responsible for radio and television broadcasts from 1930 (and until 1953 for TV) until 1960. Politicians thought the naming was no longer appropriate. BRT was only broadcasting Dutch programs whereas RTBF, the public broadcaster of Wallonia, was only broadcasting French programs. That is why in 1991 the name BRTN (Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep Nederlandstalige Uitzendingen) was introduced. When the statute of BRTN changed in 1998 they also changed the name into VRT. This reorganisation changed the public broadcaster, since the TV monopoly and the creation of VTM, into a dynamic and powerful service that is currently (2004) the market leader. Part of the success is the use of external production houses such as Woestijnvis that created succesful formats like The Mole (De Mol).
VRT is member of the European Broadcasting Union, the European organisation of public broadcasters that also organises the Eurovision Song Contest.
Television channels Television channels are broadcasted over terrestrial antennas using UHF and VHF, digitally over DVB-T and on all Belgian cable tv operators (analog only). Tests using digital broadcasts over ADSL lines are currently underway (in cooperation with Belgacom).
Current channels - EEN, the main channel, formerly known as TV 1 (een is one in Dutch)
- Ketnet, the children channel
- Canvas, the quality TV channel
Ketnet and Canvas share a single tv channel, the former broadcasting from noon till the early afternoon, and the latter in the evening and night.
Previous channels - Sporza, the sports channel
Sporza was active as a separate channel during the summer of 2004, but has been removed from the air starting September 2004. Normal sports-programmes on the other channels now also carry the name Sporza due to the huge popularity of the channel.
Radio channels The VRT broadcasts radio channels in either analog format (FM and AM) and digital format (using DAB and DVB-T). All channels are also broadcasted live over the Internet.
International broadcasting is done via VRT's Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (RVi).
Analog and digital channels - Radio 1, information channel
- Radio 2, popular channel
- Studio Brussel, young and alternative channel
- Donna, young and popular music channel
- Klara, classical music channel
- RVi or Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal, the channel for foreing people in Belgium and for Belgian people in foreign countries
Digital only channels - Klara continuo, classical radio channel without talks
- Donna HitBits, young and popular music channel without talks
- Nieuws+, latest news programme continuously repeated
They also have a TMC service transmitted on Radio 2.
Previous channels - Sporza, sports radio channel
Like the TV channel, there was also a special radio channel for sports only in the summer of 2004. Like its television counterpart, the radio channel has seased to be starting September 2004. Sports programmes on Radio 1 still carry the name Sporza though.
See also
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