The Bulgarian National Television (Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, Balgarska natsionalna televizia) or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgaria. BNT was founded in 1959 and started broadcasting on December 26 of the same year. It was the first television service to broadcast on the territory of Bulgaria. BNT is a member of International Radio and Television Organisation (to 31 December 1992), European Broadcasting Union (from 1 January 1993), EGTA, IMZ, CIRCOM Regional, FIAT and BBLF. History The first broadcast of the first Bulgarian television was in 1959. The archive had recorders, photos and movies which were for the public in the end of the 1950s and beginning of 1960s. Since 1964 BNT began broadcasting news, programmes and movies in monochrome to serve the rising number of viewers in Bulgaria. BNT began its colour broadcasting in 1973 in French SECAM colour system. The second channel, BT2 saw its emergence in the following year. Since 1975 the first video programs in the 2inch format were made. In 1977 a fond about the broadcasting and movies from the program was created. In 1983 recorders with one-inch tape were made. The end of the 2 inch era was in 1984. The year 1991 is very important for the Bulgarian National Television. All records started to be recorded on computer and digitized for better quality that is available in a variety of other formats, as well as switch from SECAM to more widely-used PAL. BT1 and BT2, were renamed as "Kanal 1" and "Efir 2", respectively. In 1992, a gold fond about all archives was created with 2,000 photos and 33,000 information objects. The year 1999 saw the foundation of TV Bulgaria (now BNT 3), BNT's satellite television. The 2010 FIFA World Cup became the first sports event broadcast in HD format. Since March 2012, BNT started broadcasting in 16:9 format. On 6 February 2014, BNT started broadcasting its own HD channel – BNT HD (which was renamed in 2018 as BNT 3). Channels The Bulgarian National Television broadcasts on four different themed channels: BNT 1 – a 24-hour channel with national significance BNT 2 – cultural-based channel that offers a variety of programmes covering all aspects of day-to-day life of the Bulgarian people, culture, arts, sports, entertainment, films, series and regional programming BNT 3 – sport-based channel BNT 4 – broadcasts internationally and provides cultural and informative