Botswana Television

Botswana Television (also known as BTV and Botswana TV) is the national broadcaster in Botswana. Botswana's first national television service started in 2000 following a 1997 government decision.[1][2] The station delivers thirteen hours of local and international programmes daily on weekdays and 13 hours of programming on weekends.[1]

Botswana Television
TypeBroadcast
Country
Botswana
Motto"Together we are the future." ("Mmogo re isago")
Broadcast area
Southern Africa
AreaGaborone, Botswana
OwnerGovernment of Botswana
Launch date
1965 (radio)
2000 (television)
(4:3) & (16:9)
Picture format
1080p (HDTV)
Sister Channels
BTV 1
BTV 2
BTV News
Now Channel
Radio
2 national radio stations and 3 privately owned
Official website
www.btv.gov.bw

Programming

Botswana Television usually offers local content during its run. Shows like Pula Power, Flava Dome and Mokaragana aim to entertain Botswana nationwide through popular music. The TV drama, Pelokgale encourages Batswana to stop Gender Based Violence.[3] News is also broadcast daily.

History

It was launched on 31 July 2000, BTV has established itself in Botswana's viewing habits.[4]

The children's programme "Mantlwaneng" was a leading part of a fledgling BTV when it launched. Its child stars, Marang Molosiwa, Rea Kopi, Phenyo Mogampane and StaXx have gone onto careers based on this early experience.[5]

Botswana Television started its new offer of channels on October 2, 2022. The change coincided with the switch-off of analogue terrestrial signals in the country. The new channels are BTV 1 (entertainment), BTV 2 (education) and BTV News.[6]

Approach

The station aims to provide at least 60% local content to meet the diverse needs of Botswana. It seeks to align its strategy with the national vision, Vision 2016. The majority of Batswana are young people and Botswana has diverse cultural and language groups.

BTV is the first station in Africa and the second in the world after ITN (UK-based Independent Television News) to fully use digital technology.[7] Its signal is carried on the Intelsat 20 satellite with a significant footprint, which covers the whole country, and most of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The station is fully Serial Digital Video, 4:3 and 16:9 switchable, but with the flexibility of analogue with dual language stereo capabilities.

The station uses the Quantel Inspiration System for processing and transmission with the news processing software ENPS (Electronic News Production System) in the newsroom. Its server-based technology gives the news the speed and flexibility sought by journalists and news editors.

To cover the wide area of the country, two satellite News Gathering (SNG) teams are based in the North and North-West - Francistown and Maun respectively. Their area of responsibility stretches from Palapye/Serowe to the border with Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Maun team also covers Ghanzi the extreme West.

ISDB-T / SBTVD

Features:

  • Supports ISDB-T broadcast (13 segments).
  • MPEG-2/ MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264 HD/ SD video.
  • DiVX Compatible with 480i/ 480p/ 720p/ 1080i/ 1080p video formats. Auto and Manually scan all available TV and radio channels.
  • Aspect ratio 16:9 and 4:3.
  • 1000 channels memory.
  • Parental control.
  • Teletext/ Bit map subtitle.
  • Compliant with ETS1.
  • Supported 7 days EPG function.
  • VBI Teletext support 6 MHz software setting Auto/ Manual program search.
  • Multi language supported.

See also

References
  1. "Botswana TV". Music In Africa. 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  2. S Mosanako. "However, Btv's innovation television future in manner to ensure both current and future generations benefit from the resources" (PDF).
  3. "Partnership projects Pelokgale enough, enough stop gender based violence". Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  4. Staff Writer (23 November 2018). "Mmegi Online :: The past, present and future of television in Africa". Mmegi Online. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  5. Co, Maverick Maven (2018-04-12). "Former Mantlwaneng child stars who rule local TV". BotswanaUnplugged. Archived from the original on 2019-09-11. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  6. ADMIN. "From Analogue to Digital: BTV launches Three New Channels". The Botswana Gazette. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  7. "Department of Information and Broadcasting/BTV". www.dib.gov.bw. Retrieved 2020-05-28.

Botswana Television (section)

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