| Country | North Korea |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Pyongyang, North Korea |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Government |
| Korean Central Broadcasting Committee | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 조선중앙방송 |
|---|---|
| Hancha | 朝鮮中央放送 |
| Revised Romanization | Joseon Jung-ang Bangsong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chosŏn Chung'ang Pangsong |
Korean Central Television (KCTV) is a state news broadcaster in North Korea, located in the capital city, Pyongyang. KCTV is the only official source of television news for North Koreans.
KCTV is part of the Korean Central Broadcasting System, the state-owned media network of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and is part of its television arm of 3 television stations.
KCTV was formally launched in 1963 as Pyongyang Broadcasting Network (PBN). PBN was later renamed to Korean Central Television (KCTV) and officially relaunched at 17:00 local time on 3 January 1975 (the first working day in 1975 in North Korea). The broadcasting was only Weekday (workdays in North Korea) and closed on weekend and national holidays. In 1977, Colour television commenced in the channel. KCTV started broadcasting on national holidays in 1992.
The development history of Television broadcasting in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not so long. Television broadcasting was referred to the first time on 1 September 1953, just after the Korean War. The war wreaked havoc on the whole country. In that situation, all people concentrated their energies on the postwar rehabilitation and construction of the country.
At the same time, Kim Il-sung expounded a view on developing Television broadcasting in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The people then started to open up a new era of Television broadcasting. Of course, the work was not smooth. Owing to the adverse consequences of the war, capital and materials were not sufficient. There were too many bottlenecks and difficulties.
However, the people achieved great success in the spirit of self-reliance and hard work, and after eight years of trial and errors, they were able to make a broadcasting test for the first time on 1 September 1961. Through the test they eliminated the insufficiencies and upgraded their editing and technical ability.
At last, the Central Television Broadcasting System of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea started formal broadcasting on 3 March 1963.
The establishment of the Central Television Broadcasting System strengthened the publishing and broadcasting industries of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and marked an epochal event in the cultural life of the people.
After the start of Television broadcasting, the work to telecast live programs spread briskly. Thus, finally they succeeded in carrying live the whole proceedings of the 5th Congress of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, held on 1 October 1970. This success in live broadcasting opened a new way to spread Television throughout the country.
They intensified the work to provide equipment such as studio recording cameras and cars for broadcasts relaying. As a result of the work of construction of television relay towers all over the country, the televisionizing of the whole country was accomplished in the early 1970s.
Then, they promoted modernization of Television broadcasting positively and built up the material and technical foundations for Telvision broadcasting in various kinds.
On this basis, the Kaesong Television Broadcasting Station opened on 1 April 1971 (reorganized into the Korea Television Broadcasting Station for Education and Culture on 1 February 1997), Mansudae Television Broadcasting Station on 1 December 1973, while Colour television broadcasting started on 1 April 1974.
Today, North Korea’s TV broadcasting stations provided with modern equipment and means broadcast programs with diverse content on different subjects.
The Korea Central Broadcasting System offers news reports, programs on politics, economic affairs, education, culture and at the same time provides "programs for the agricultural working people" and on popular contests such as "National Workers' song contests" and "Korean wrestling matches."
The Korea Television Broadcasting Station for Education and Culture give various information needed in people’s practical life. These information programs help workers to raise their knowledge levels of science, technology and culture and cultivate their sprits of national identity and patriotism.
Mansudae Television Broadcasting give culture and art programs mainly- various programs such as foreign films, international sports, information on current international affairs and development trends in technology.
The Central Broadcasting System of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea broadcasts 2-hours (19:00-21:00) on weekdays.
The Korea Television Broadcasting Station for Korean Education and Culture broadcasts 4-hours (17:00-21:00) on weekdays.
The Mansudae Television Broadcasting Station broadcasts 2-hours (19:00-21:00) on weekdays.
On important national holidays, the broadcasting time of each station is the same as on weekdays.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was started relay reception by a communication satellite television in 1980.
Color television follows the PAL system with 576i scanning lines.
Now, KCTV broadcasts 4-hours each day from 17:00 to 21:00 on daily and key national holidays. There is another exception, for the emergency events in DPRK at night or daytime, it starts up without any announcers or the Voice of Korea interval signal. The station is still open until that event becomes normal. The station's output is dominated by propaganda programming focusing on the history and achievements of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army (KPA) and Kim Jong-il. Topics covered range from new construction projects to history lessons about the accomplishments and past of Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung and the juche idea. As with most propaganda, the accuracy of these historic accounts is not always credible, with facts sometimes being distorted in favor of the government. Other programs on topics such as health, education and even children's programs are also aired. Movies and even patriotic musical shows and theater are also shown on the network. On national holidays, military parades, musical performances and movies, plus more special programs are shown on all three networks.
The following illustrates part of a typical day's broadcasting on KCTV on daily:
Newsreaders wear the same outfit everyday, though they may vary in color. Black and blue for male newsreaders and green and pink for female and have the same haircut for everyone of the same gender. Newscasters must strongly project their voices when on air. Newscasts start typically with a blank red or blue slide, followed by a slow fade to the anchor. The set has the background of Pyongyang with the Taedong river. Nowadays even Mt. Baekdu or another view of Pyongyang is used as the background for the newscasts.
Programs have no set time at which to air (The programming is not pegged to air at every half hour, hour, etc.). This is probably due to the cut out of commercials for imported programs, although starting programs at odd times is a standard procedure even on European TV channels.
KCTV was broadcast free-to-air on Thaicom 2 before it was grounded and has been moved to Thaicom 5 on August 1, 2010, so with the appropriate equipment can be picked up in Southeast Asia, Australia, Middle East, Africa and Europe.
The daily KCTV news bulletin is also distributed online with Japanese subtitle through this Chongryon.
There are 5 idents broadcast daily since 1980.
The blue background with KCTV's logo and Juche Tower flying in slowly, with remix of Song of General Kim Il-sung. The late-night version uses the slow instrumental music played on traditional Korean instrument, is a short part from 50's North Korean song.
There are minor test card changes from time-to-time.
Since the start of 2012, the Korean Central Television generally signs on at 5:00 pm with the country's national anthem along with shots of Mount Paekdu and Lake Chon, followed by a shot of the national flag on which an image of the Chollima statue appears, along with the caption 조선중앙텔레비죤 (Korean Central Television). An announcer then appears, welcoming viewers to the day's transmission. This is followed by the Song of General Kim Il-sung accompanied by shots of Mount Paektu and Lake Chon, and then a red flag flutters on the screen, on which appears a portrait of late president Kim Il Sung. This is followed by a rendition of the Song of General Kim Jong-il by military band also accompanied by a shot of a cloudy Lake Chon and the image of late Kim Jong-il with a red flag fluttering in the background. The entire overall start-up sequence lasts just over six minutes.
Korean Central Television signs off at around 8:50 pm each evening with an extended preview of the next day's schedule followed by an in-vision closing announcement, finaly the Flag of North Korea a shot of the national flag, fade-out in black screen of slowest pictures runtime and test pattern was broadcast at the end at 9:00 pm.
The station's broadcasting is done via a network of mediumwave and shortwave transmitters across the country. These powerful transmissions can easily be heard in neighboring countries, including South Korea where several of these frequencies are jammed. The station began its first colour telecasts in 1977. On March 2012 the news readers presenting items in front of a computer-generated background. A graphic to accompany the story appears above the right or left shoulder — a style almost universally used in other countries by that time. When the report begins the graphic moves forward to fill the screen.
The powerful Haeju transmitter puts out a signal that easily reaches into South Korea, China and Japan during the nighttime. The South Korean government jams most of the North Korean mediumwave programming, but the jamming signal is weaker than that coming from North Korea so doesn’t affect listening outside of South Korea.[1]
Schedules are published in the Rodong Sinmun, Minju Choson, Pyongyang Sinmun, Rimjingang and Korean News Service (Chosun Tongsin) was daily North Korea newspapers, including Chinese newspapers.