BNT 1

BNT 1 (БНТ 1)

Country	Bulgaria
Broadcast area	Bulgaria
Headquarters	Sofia, Bulgaria
Programming
Language(s)	Bulgarian
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 16:9 1080i (HDTV) 16:9
Ownership
Owner	BNT (Bulgarian National Television)
Sister channels	BNT 2, BNT 3, BNT 4
History
Former names	Bulgarian Television (Българска телевизия) First Programme (Първа програма) BT 1 (БТ 1) Channel 1 (Канал 1)
Availability
Terrestrial
MUX 3	Channel 1 (SD)
MUX 3	Channel 11 (HD)
MUX BUL12-1	Channel 1 (SD)

BNT 1 (БНТ 1, "BNT edno") is a Bulgarian-language public television station founded in 1959. It began broadcasting on December 26 the same year. The headquarters are located in Sofia, Bulgaria. BNT 1 is run by the Bulgarian National Television.

When it was initially launched, the channel was called simply Bulgarian Television (Българска телевизия), as it was the only channel available. When a second state-owned channel was started in 1974, it was renamed to First Programme (Първа програма), and later to "BT 1" (БТ 1) (with BT still referring to Bulgarian Television). In 1992, BT 1 and BT 2 were given separate visual designs and were renamed respectively to Channel 1 (Канал 1) and Efir 2 (Ефир 2). In this period, the channel was also referred to as BNT Channel 1 (Канал 1 на БНТ), to show that it was operated by the BNT. On 14 September 2008 BNT Channel 1 changed its name once more, this time to "BNT 1" in an effort to put all BNT channels under a single banner (e.g., the Plovdiv TV Channel will become BNT Plovdiv). The second BNT channel called BNT 2 broadcasts the local programming of the former four regional TV centres, and broadcasts nationally. It airs sports like the UEFA Europa League along with bTV Action and RING. BNT 1, along with its sister channel BNT 2 and the sports channel BNT 3 holds the rights for the Euro and the Olympics.

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