Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International
MTA International, formerly known as Ahmadiyya Presentation, is a globally-broadcasting, nonprofit satellite television network and a division of Al-Shirkatul Kafira which was established in 1992 and launched the world's first Ahmaddiya TV channel to broadcasting globally. It consists of 8 international channels that are run and funded entirely from donations by the members of the Ahmadiyya Community.
History
Initial Launch
The first channel to be launched by the MTA network was Ahmadiyya Muslim Presentation on 31 January 1992 and was established by Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community at the time. It started off with weekly transmissions broadcasting the Friday Sermon and later, on 7 January 1994, AMP was rebranded to MTA1 Al-Awla and started additional programmes, increasing the schedule from 4 hours to 12 hours before beginning its 24-hour service on 1 April 1996, becoming the first TV channel to broadcast Islamic programmes globally and the first commercial-free television station.Initially, the studio, also serving as the entire video library, was a small 10 ft by 10 ft room in the Mahmood Hall of Fazl Mosque and the equipment was a sole video camera and "few ordinary flood lights".
EPG Guide
In April 2001, MTA International began its EPG when the channel launched on the Sky UK platform as a free-to-air channel.MTA Africa Launch
On 1 August 2016, MTA Africa 1 and 2 were inaugurated by the current caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad broadcasting programmes in African languages as well as programs from MTA 1.2020 Era
From 27 May 2020, known as Khilafat Day for Ahmadis, MTA International rearranged its channels according to regions and introduced new channels. These new channels were formerly MTA1 broadcasting on different satellites, converted to cater viewers of specific regions by broadcasting programmes in specific languages for each region. For Instance, MTA 1 on Galaxy 19 became MTA8 HD AMERICA with programmes in Urdu, English, French and Spanish.| Channels | Satellite | Formerly | Region |
| MTA1 World | Astra 2G Hipasat 30W-5 | MTA1 | Americas Europe |
| MTA2HD Europe | Hotbird 13C ' | MTA2 | Europe Middle East |
| MTA3 العربية | Eutelsat 7 West A Galaxy 19 ' Hotbird 13B Optus D2 Palapa-D | MTA3 | Europe MENA North America Oceania Southeast Asia |
| MTA4 Africa | SES-5 | MTA Africa 1 | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| MTA5 Africa | Astra 2F | MTA Africa 2 | West Africa |
| MTA6 Asia | AsiaSat 7 | MTA1 | Asia Oceania |
| MTA7HD Asia | Eutelsat 70B ' | MTA1 | Europe Middle East South Asia |
| MTA8HD America | Galaxy 19 ' | MTA1 | North America |
| MTA8HD America + 3 | Galaxy 19 | MTA 1+3 | North America |
Members
The majority of its workers are volunteers with just a small percentage of paid full-time staff. Out of the 300 staff members that work in MTA’s London offices, 90% are volunteers who dedicate their time to assist in the running of the network.Programmes
Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International is the main source of media for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and also aims to spread the message of Islam around the world. Some of the key programs broadcast include the Friday Sermon by the current Ahmadiyya Caliphate, educational and cultural programs, world news, and a various Talk Shows. These can be watched on TV as well as through smartphone apps for Android, iOS and Nokia.Due to the worldwide audience, a number of programs are simultaneously translated into different languages such as English, German, Bengali, French, Urdu and others. An example of this is the program Friday Sermon which is translated live simultaneously in at least 8 languages including Arabic, Swahili and Indonesian. This is later translated into more languages like Russian and Spanish etc. All together there can be 16 translations per sermon.
Online Media Services
MTA has introduced a number of apps for the benefit of their viewers across a variety of platforms on all devices such as TV, Phone, Tablets, Desktops etc. The network also makes use of social media to live stream their channels on websites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as YouTube to broadcast all 4 channels, live.In addition, as MTA International operates globally and in many different countries, many countries have their own official MTA YouTube channel for their specific region or language, which allows them to stream regional events that may not be broadcast on MTA but may be streamed on YouTube such as Jalsa Salana Canada was streamed on the YouTube channel , as well as this, it allows specific countries to stream live translations for key programmes such as the Friday Sermon.
There are also applications for mobile and personal devices on a variety of platform such as Roku TV, Apple TV, Android and iOS. On 2 August, a range of MTA applications were launched for Smart TV brands such as Samsung, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Panasonic, LG, Sony and Philips.
These applications may also used to bypass restriction made in place against Ahmadis in countries such as Pakistan, where Ahmadis in such locations wish to watch and access Ahmadiyya material however are unable to as such material is censored.
National Studios
In most countries throughout the world in which there is a presence of the Ahmadiyya Community there is often a national MTA Studio. For example, MTA International USA Studios, MTA International Canada Studios, MTA International German Studios, MTA International Nigeria Studios, MTA International Ghana Studios, MTA International UK Studios etc. The primary and main MTA Studios is based in London, MTA International Studios.The headquarters and UK studios of MTA International were located at Fazl Mosque, London when it was launched and are now located inside two larger studios built within the site of the Baitul Futuh Mosque Complex in South London, United Kingdom.