Television in Bulgaria

In 1954, a team at the Machine and Electrotechnics Institute in Sofia (today called the Technical University of Sofia) started experimental television broadcasting with two antennas (one for sound and one for image) on the roof of a building near the Vasil Levski monument in the city, after having previously conducted successful cable test transmissions.

The experimental channel of the MEI did not air anything but a test chart on that day, although it did show a greeting to the new Sofia Television Station three times after 19:05.

The MEI channel continued to operate until late 1960, when the team started working on the future introduction of color television.

It also used the D/K audio system, which was generally done to prevent reception of Western European stations in Eastern Bloc countries.

Public attention was quickly caught by the new medium, and the number of bought and registered television sets increased gradually.

BNT, from 1964, began broadcasting news, programmes and movies in monochrome to serve the rising number of viewers in Bulgaria.

Programming was controlled and influenced by the Bulgarian Communist Party-run government in this time, as was usual in the Eastern Bloc.

In the late 1980s, some western programming was allowed, including Pink Panther cartoons and the television series La piovra (Октопод) and Escrava Isaura (Робинята Изаура).

Ivan Garelov's Panorama and Kevork Kevorkyan's Vsyaka nedelya talk shows/news magazines were among BT's most popular programs.

After bTV took over Efir 2's frequencies, another competition selected Nova Television, already popular in cable networks around the country, as the second privately owned national channel in Bulgaria.

The authorities currently refuse to license further analogue terrestrial channels (including local ones), until DVB-T broadcasting is started.

However, because the monthly fee for the digital packages is higher, some subscribers choose to continue using the analogue service, although with less channels than before.

[2] The next year, ITV Partner (now Satellite BG) was launched as a DTH service by Interactive Technologies PLC, broadcasting on Eutelsat W2.

There is also a small package operated by Telenor on Thor 3, which has for a long time distributed certain Bulgarian TV and radio channels.