The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (Greek: Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση A.E., romanized: Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi A.E., lit.

[6] As protests against the decision of the government (Coalition of New Democracy, PASOK, DIMAR) continued, on 15 June Prime Minister Samaras proposed returning ERT to service immediately, by having an emergency committee rehire selected employees.

In his ruling, the Council's President found that the government's decision violated Law 1730/1987 which requires "the contribution by a public broadcaster to informing, educating and entertaining the Greek people and the diaspora".

That halted most conventional TV and radio broadcasts that received the feed from the satellite but did not affect the regional ERA affiliates that produced their programming locally, nor a large part of Athens which is served by a DVB-T transmitter located within the ERT HQ in Ayia Paraskevi.

During the Axis occupation of Greece, the service was renamed as the Limited Hellenic Radio Company or AERE (Ανώνυμη Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνική Εταιρεία, ΑΕΡΕ).

After Liberation, in 1945 the service was reorganized as the National Radio Foundation or EIR (Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ραδιοφωνίας, ΕΙΡ), still based at Zappeion.

With the introduction of independent privately owned channels in Greece in the late 1980s, programme quality changed to a more commercial variety, in order to survive the fierce competition for ratings.

This was a major shift in the network's principles that was dominated by wider variety[citation needed], alleged "higher quality" programmes including documentaries and World Cinema.

[12][full citation needed] At 17:45 EEST (UTC+3) on 11 June 2013, the Greek spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced ERT would close by the end of the day.

[13] ERT was dissolved by a Common Ministerial Decision that was enacted by virtue of Article 14B of Law 3429/2005 (regarding the dissolution, merger and restructuring of public companies) as amended by an urgent government Legislative Ordinace (FEK 139/11.06.2013, Issue A').

Other Internet assets registered by ERT are at risk of being closed (because their owner and contact address are no longer valid), notably the official Facebook page and Twitter account.

[18][19] The European Broadcasting Union was quick to criticise the closure, issuing a statement the same evening where they expressed "profound dismay on behalf of Europe's entire public service media" and urged the prime minister to reverse the decision.

[21] On 12 June 2013 a Greek government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced the formation of a new public service broadcaster, New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television.

The interval signal for all ERA programmes are several opening bars of the folk song "Tsopanakos Imouna" (Once I Was A Shepherd Boy).

ERT is mainly funded by a license fee, which is also paid with the electricity bill (along with other applicable taxes) which represents the vast majority of resources in the public group.

[citation needed] The opening bars of Tsopanakos Imouna (Greek: Τσοπανάκος ήμουνα) is ERT's corporate theme music, as well as their interval signal on radio.