Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra, S.A. (RTVA) (ˈraðiu təɫəβiziˈo ðənˈdorə, ˈraðio teleβiziˈo ðanˈdɔra, meaning in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 "Radio and Television of Andorra, PLC

Public limited company

A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....

"), is the public service

Public broadcasting

Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 broadcaster

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 in the Principality of Andorra. It operates a television channel, ATV, and a radio station, RNA; both of which broadcast in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

.

History

Public service broadcasting in the principality began on 26 October 1989 after the General Council of Andorra decided a national broadcasting organisation should be set up. As a result, the Organisme de Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra (ORTA) was formed and radio station Ràdio Nacional d'Andorra (RNA) began broadcasting in December 1990. Andorra Televisió (ATV), Andorra's first television channel began in 1995. ORTA was funded by the Andorran government. All programming on both RNA and ATV was produced by independent companies until 1997 when ORTA began producing all of its own programming. ORTA was replaced by the current organisation, Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra S.A. (RTVA), on 13 April 2000. RTVA took full control of both RNA and ATV. RTVA is also funded by the government. Advertising provides additional revenue. Its current director-general is Gualbert Osorio Achurra. RTVA has been an active member of the European Broadcasting Union

European Broadcasting Union

The European Broadcasting Union is a confederation of 74 broadcasting organisations from 56 countries, and 49 associate broadcasters from a further 25...

 since 2002 and has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

 each year since 2004. In 2010 RTVA withdrew from Eurovision because of financial problems.

The broadcaster has to compete with TV and radio stations from both France and Spain whose transmissions can easily be picked up in the principality.

Channels

• ATV
  TVA (Andorra)
  ATV , occasionally known as La Tele is a television channel in the Principality of Andorra.It is owned by RTVA and the Andorran government....
  
   - The national television channel of Andorra.
• RNA - The national radio station of Andorra.

Programming

ATV broadcasts a range of programming including sports, music, films and magazine shows as well as the daily children's strand Club Piolet. The flagship news programme ATV Noticies is produced and broadcast three times a day, with bulletins at 1345, 2100 and prior to closedown. Regular live parliamentary coverage is also broadcast. ATV usually broadcasts between the hours of 0730 and 2345 each day with information pages displayed after closedown.

RNA broadcasts mostly music although news bulletins air on the hour, every hour. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

ATV and RNA are streamed online for free on RTVA's website, although the ATV stream is sometimes replaced with a test card

Test card

A test card, also known as a test pattern in North America and Australia, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast...

 due to copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

restrictions on some programming.

External links

• Corporate site (in Catalan)
• Informatius.ad: news, weather and information site run by RTVA (in Catalan)