BNT
Bulgarian National Television

200px
Type	Broadcast television and internet
Country	Bulgaria
Owner	Bulgaria
Launch date	1959
Official website	https://www.bnt.bg/

The Bulgarian National Television (Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, Bŭlgarska natsionalna televiziya) or BNT (БНТ) is the public broadcaster of Bulgaria. The company was founded in 1959 and began broadcasting on December 26 of the same year. It began broadcasting in color in 1970. BNT's headquarters are located in Sofia, Bulgaria, in a building located at the well-known address of 29 San Stefano Str.

BNT is funded from government funds (around 60%) with the rest coming from television commercials [1]. It broadcasts two television channels: the over-the-air BNT 1 and the international BNT World, a channel aiming to broadcast Bulgarian production only. Another channel, Efir 2, existed between 1974 and 2000, and was later substituted by the private bTV. The channel was relaunched on October 2011 as BNT 2

BNT operates four regional broadcasting centres, based in Blagoevgrad (Pirin programme), Varna (More programme), Plovdiv (Plovdiv programme) and Rousse (Sever programme). They were merged to create the BNT 2 channel in October 2011.

BNT's first live broadcast was the parade on the occasion of the October Revolution anniversary.

Appearances [link]

Logo history [link]

1990s-2008 [link]

This is the Bulgarian National Television's first logo. The logo consists of the Cyrillic letters "Б" and "Т" (for Bulgarian Television) shaped in the form of a TV antenna. Often the words "Bulgarian National Television" were placed on its right side. It was used until September 14, 2008. Before 1992, this was also the on-screen logo, and the channels' labels "БТ-1" and "БТ-2" stood next to it.

2008-present [link]

This is the BNT's second and current logo. The "БТ" antenna again appears, but somewhat squeezed compared to the previous logo. This time it is positioned in the middle of a dark red rectangle. Below it, placed in separate red squares, are the Cyrillic letters "Б", "Н" and "Т". This logo has been used since September 15, 2008.

Clocks [link]

There is no clock broadcast on BNT except on important events.

Test card [link]

The testcard of the BNT was introduced in the 1970s. Initially, the testcard had the text "БТ–СОФИЯ" with no time and date, along with various shapes and colors around it. After the organisation was renamed, the text was changed to "БНТ". The sound during broadcasts of the test card was audio from the Bulgarian National Radio.

After Efir 2 was closed in 2000 and Channel 1 started broadcasting a full 24-hour schedule, the test card has rarely been seen. One can only expect to see it during maintenance periods.

See also [link]

• Eastern Bloc information dissemination

External links [link]

• Official website of BNT (Bulgarian)

Coordinates: 42°41′31″N 23°20′19″E / 42.69194°N 23.33861°E / 42.69194; 23.33861