Turkish Radio and Television Corporation


The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT, was founded in 1964 and is the national public broadcaster of Turkey. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a license tax on television and radio receivers. As these are hypothecated taxes, as opposed to the money coming from general government funds, the principle is similar to that of the television licence levied in a number of other countries, such as the BBC in the United Kingdom. The rest of TRT's funding comes from government grants, with the final 10% coming from advertising.
Affectionately known to local consumers as the "School", it was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio in 1990, and subsequently commercial television in 1992, it held a monopoly on broadcasting. More recent deregulation of the Turkish television broadcasting market produced analogue cable television. Today, TRT broadcasts around the world, especially in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
TRT's predecessor, "Türkiye Radyoları" was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950; it would return to the EBU fold as TRT in 1972. The original company started radio test broadcasts in 1926, with a studio built in Istanbul in 1927 and a studio in Ankara following in 1928.
It organized the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

History

Test transmissions started on TRT 1 on January 31, 1968. A full national television schedule, which at that time linked the areas in and around Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir, started in December 1971. TRT renewed its membership in the European Broadcasting Union starting on August 26, 1972, with Turkey's first Eurovision Network event, a football match, airing across Europe on January 13, 1973. TRT also joined the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in 1976, the same year their first colour television test was showcased via laboratory at the general assembly of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
All programming was in black and white from the start of test transmissions in 1968 until the New Year's Eve programming on December 31, 1981, when the first on-air color tests started. The entire lineup switched to color on March 15, 1984.
TRT organized the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, with the semi-final on 12 May 2004 and the final on 15 May 2004.
On May 19, 2012 TRT 1 HD started simulcasting with TRT 1 upscaled to full HD 16:9 DVB-S2 standard.
In January 2018, TRT celebrated its 50th anniversary. All TRT channels broadcast a collection of old idents and news studio as part of the celebration in form of nostalgia. Each day new idents were made. This event also happened in 1978, 1988, 1998 and 2008.

Post-2016 attempted coup

After the July 15 coup attempt, many people in TRT were either fired or forced workers to retire. According to Haber-Sen Union; 1800 of workers were forced to retire. The union protested this situation on November 21, 2018 in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakir and Brussels. During the protests, TRT employees stated that they were exposed to psychological pressure defined as MOBING. TRT employee Osman Köse stated that more than 3 thousand TRT employees have been transferred to other state institutions and 5 thousand people have been dismissed from TRT.

Television channels

All television channels can be watched via Turksat satellite in Europe in Asia and terrestrial in Turkey and neighboring countries. Some of them are also found on cable TV systems.

Domestic

TRT has a special TV channel for Kurdish that broadcasts on a 24-hour / 7-day basis called TRT Kurdî and other TV and Radio stations that broadcast programmes in the local languages and dialects like Armenian, Arabic, Bosnian and Circassian a few hours a week.
Another special TV channel aimed at the Turkic world, TRT Avaz was launched on 21 March 2009 and broadcasts in the Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmen languages; while the TRT Arabic television channel started broadcasting on 4 April 2010.

Closing and opening times throughout the years

After the July 15 coup attempt, many people in TRT were either fired or forced workers to retire. According to Haber-Sen Union; 1800 of workers were forced to retire. The union protested this situation on November 21, 2018 in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakir and Brussels. During the protests, TRT employees stated that they were exposed to psychological pressure defined as MOBING. TRT employee Osman Köse stated that more than 3 thousand TRT employees have been transferred to other state institutions and 5 thousand people have been dismissed from TRT.
Many of TRT employees were dismissed and sent to prison by the reason of the July 15 coup attempt. According to the list that published in the ‘Resmi Gazete’ of the state, 312 people were dismissed. According to the report provided by the non-governmental organization-Sweden-based NGO Stockholm Center for Freedom, approximately 150 TRT employees were accused of being a member of a ‘terrorist organization’. Many of them were arrested and imprisoned.

Radio channels

TRT started teletext trial-runs with the name “Telegün” on December 3, 1990.
All TV channels are broadcasting the teletext. An online interface is available. 6 channels are also broadcasting their programs with the Electronic program guide.

Logos