The television industry in Turkey includes high-tech program production, transmission, and coverage. Turkish Radio and Television Corporation is Turkey's largest and most powerful national television station. As of 2022, there are 498 television channels in Turkey, ranking fourth in Europe in terms of the number of television channels.[1] Turkey is the world's fastest-growing television series exporter and has currently [when?] overtaken both Mexico and Brazil as the world's second-highest television series exporter after the United States. Turkish television drama has grown since the early 2000s.

History

Television in Turkey was introduced in 1952 with the launch of ITU TV. The first television broadcast work carried out as a closed-circuit television broadcast in Turkey was prepared in June–July 1966. The first national television channel in Turkey was TRT 1, which was introduced in 1968. In 1972, TRT broadcast its service exclusively to Ankara four nights a week, yet viewers in border areas were enticed by TV channels from neighboring countries. Sophisticated antennas were installed in Istanbul before the start of TRT's service in the city, aimed at Bulgaria, the closest country that had functional signals.[2] Color television was introduced in 1981. Turkey's first private television channel, Star, began broadcasting on 26 May 1989. There was only one television channel controlled by the state until the wave of liberalization in the 1990s which began privately owned broadcasting.[3] Turkey's television market is defined by a handful of large channels, led by Kanal D, ATV and Show, with 14%, 10% and 9.6% market share, respectively.[4]

The two most used reception platforms are terrestrial and satellite, with almost 50% of homes using satellite (and 15% of those pay for services) by the end of 2009. Three services dominate the multi-channel market: the satellite platforms Digiturk and D-Smart and the cable TV service Türksat.[5]

Digital terrestrial television

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Çamlıca Tower is the tallest structure in Istanbul.

Turkey’s planned digital terrestrial television on 28 August 1998 at Bilkent University. Ankara Dikmen 1,5 kW DVB-T transmitter started test broadcasting on 1 December 2003.[citation needed]

Turkey began digital transmissions in February 2006. The Turkish government was expected to gradually handle the switchover, with a completion date of March 2015. In 2013, the broadcasting regulator awarded a license to a firm; this was cancelled in 2014 after the AYM upheld a complaint against the process.[6] New licenses have been proposed, but as of 2018 Turkey still has no DTT network.[7][8]

However, with the construction of a new "digital" transmitter in Çamlıca Tower and Çanakkale TV Tower, digital broadcasts finally began testing in 2020.[9][10] There are plans building up to 40 more transmitters around the country.[11]

List of channels

Government channels (TRT - Turkish Radio and Television Corporation)

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Current logo of the first national channel TRT 1
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Channel Category
TRT 1 General
TRT 2 Art and culture
TRT Haber News
TRT Spor Sports
TRT Spor Yıldız Sports
TRT Çocuk Children
TRT Diyanet Çocuk Children
TRT Müzik Music
TRT Türk General
TRT Belgesel Documentaries
TRT Avaz Programmes in Turkic Languages
TRT Kurdî Programmes in Kurdish Language
TRT Arabi Programmes in Arabic Language
TRT World News in English
TRT EBA TV Education
TBMM TV (diffusion with TRT 3) Parliament
TRT 3 (diffusion with TBMM TV) Youth
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Private national channels

More information Channel, Category ...
Channel Category
ATV General
Kanal D General
NOW General
Show TV General
Star TV General
Kanal 7 General
teve2 General
TV8 General
360 General
TV4 General
24 TV News
Beyaz TV General
A Haber News
A News News in English
Bengü Türk TV News
CNBC-e Economy
CNN Türk News
Ekol TV News
Haber Global News
Habertürk TV News
Halk TV News
KRT TV News
NTV News
Sözcü TV News
TVNET News
TGRT Haber News
Ulusal Kanal News
Ekotürk Economy
Ülke TV News
Bloomberg HT Economy
TLC American Series
A Spor Sports
A Para Economy
beIN Sports Sports
Eurosport 1 Sports
Eurosport 2 Sports
Fenerbahçe TV Sports
HT Spor TV Sports
sportstv Sports
S Sport Sports
Spor Smart Sports
Dost TV Religious
Meltem TV General Religious
SAT-7 Türk General Religious
Semerkand TV Religious
Cartoon Network Children
Cartoonito Children
Disney Channel Children (Closed, 2022)
MinikaÇocuk Children
MinikaGO Children
Nickelodeon Children
Nicktoons Children
Nick Jr. Children
Smart Çocuk Children
Number 1 TV Music
Powertürk TV Music
beIN İZ Documentaries
DMAX Documentaries
Yaban TV Documentaries
TGRT Belgesel Documentaries
TV100 News
Tele1 News
beIN Movies Movies
Movie Smart Movies
Sinema TV Movies
beIN Series Series
Dizi Smart Series
beIN Gurme Lifestyle
beIN H&E Lifestyle and entertainment
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Most viewed channels

Most viewed channels for 2023 are:[12]

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See also

References

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