The first legal television broadcasts in Andorra date back to the 1970s. The Andorran television scene is the direct result of the country's complex history, which can be explained by the balanced cultural, political and social relations of the European microstate with the two neighboring countries, France and Spain. Thus, Andorra had first time a color television input, although for a while it shared the signal with black and white. The incorporation of the country into the digital era was, however, quite leading. Andorra is the third European country, after Finland and Luxembourg, to have switched off the analogue signal. The Andorran television channel Andorra Televisió was launched in 1995.

History

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Having political conflicts with its neighbours over the implementation of telegraph, telephone and radio, made the introduction of television in Andorra very late.[1] [2][3]

There is news from the 1950s about the use of televisions in Andorran bars. But it was not until the arrival of color television, introduced in France before Spain, that the Andorran authorities decided to take an interest in television. Therefore, the Andorran Parliament, which had its own government only since the 1980s, decided in 1967 to contact the French co-prince in order to find out how to obtain permits and licenses to broadcast television in Andorra.

Following the traditional diplomatic criteria with France and Spain, the first French and Spanish television channels can be seen from the 1970s. This justified setting up an Andorran company to manage the television offer; Servei de Telecomunicacions d'Andorra (STA), the current Andorra Telecom.

In the 1980s, Andorra received a government for the first time and, with it, separated, albeit rhetorically, the executive of the parliament under Montesquian criteria: government, parliament and courts. This is important since it is under the first government that a whole process began that culminated in the conversion of Ràdio Andorra into the current Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra. In the 1990s, Ràdio Andorra was formally transformed into a new public entity, responsible for broadcasting not only radio, but also television.

Digital terrestrial television

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On 25 September 2007 at 11pm, Andorra became one of the first European countries to switch off all terrestrial analogue transmissions, making TDT the only method of terrestrial TV reception in the country. The service is operated jointly by the Andorran Government and the country's telecommunications company Andorra Telecom. As well as offering Andorra's only TV Channel ATV, the service offers various channels from Spain and France. It is also one of the few terrestrial television services to offer the BBC World News channel.[4][5]

Language Country Television channel Radio channel Owner MUX
Catalan
  Andorra Andorra TV HD Ràdio Nacional d'Andorra
Andorra Música
Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) 42
  Spain TV3 HD
Super3 / El 33
Esport3
3/24
Catalunya Ràdio CCMA 28
34
42
45
8TV HD RAC 1 OC 2022 25
Pirineus TV HD Ràdio Valira Cadena Pirenaica de Ràdio i Televisió 34
Spanish   Spain La 1 HD
La 2 HD
Teledeporte HD
Ràdio 4
Radio Exterior
RTVE 25
42
45
Antena 3 HD
La Sexta HD
Onda Cero Atresmedia 36
45
Cuatro HD
Telecinco HD
Mediaset España 28
36
Cadena SER Prisa 36
COPE Radio Popular 28
French   France TF1 HD Groupe TF1 42
France 2 HD
France 3 HD
France Télévisions 45
M6 HD Groupe M6 42
Arte HD Arte GEIE 28
C8 HD Groupe Canal+ 25
NRJ 12 HD NRJ NRJ Group 36
TV5Monde HD TV5Monde 34
Euronews Euronews 34
RFI France Médias Monde 45
  Belgium La Première RTBF 34
  Switzerland La Première SRG SSR 34
Portuguese   Portugal RTP Internacional Antena 1 RTP 28
TVI Internacional Rádio Comercial Media Capital 25
English   United Kingdom BBC World News HD BBC Radio BBC 28
  United States CNN International CNN Radio Warner Bros. Discovery 36

Former channels:

Pay television

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Andorra Telecom started providing pay-TV through IPTV technology following the completion of the transition from ADSL to fiber in 2010. Andorra Telecom has signed a contract with Movistar to broadcast their television package. In addition to the free channels and the Spanish Movistar+ channels, it also includes French channels France 5, Franceinfo, France24, W9, TMC, TFX, BFM TV and Gulli and other channels like Cubavision, CNBC Europe, Bloomberg, Fox News, Russia Today, Al Jazeera English and i24 News.

Sant Julià de Lòria

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Mútua Eléctrica, however, has been offering cable television in the southern city of Sant Julià de Lòria, since the introduction of pay television in Spain.

References

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  1. ^ Gualbert Osòrio (2013). Ràdio Andorra, la història d'un mite que va fer història. Crèdit Andorrà.
  2. ^ Roser Porta i Jorge Cebrián (2009). Andorrans als camps de concentració nazis. Govern d'Andorra. ISBN 9789992005309.
  3. ^ Martí Garcia-Ripoll Duran i Cinto Niqui Espinosa (2007). La ràdio en català a l'estranger. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
  4. ^ "Fitxa de dials TDT" (PDF). 1 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Caneles TDT Andorra - tv frecuencias". www.tdt1.com. Retrieved 25 April 2021.