Azmaariś Râdio en Faarsejen

Azmaran Radio and Television

Native name	Azmaariś Râdio en Faarsejen
Type	State-owned
Industry	Broadcasting
Founded	19 July 1936 (1936-07-19)
Headquarters	Eleinasburg, Aalmsted , Azmara
Key people	Analena Hanksdohter, Director-General
Services	TV, radio and online services
Owner	Ministry of Culture and Equality
Number of employees	2,838 (as of 31 December 2018)
Website	www.arf.az

Azmaariś Râdio en Faarsejen (Estmerish: Azmaran Radio and Television), commonly abbreviated and referred to as ARF (pronounced [ɑˈɹɛɸə]), is the national public service broadcaster of Azmara. A founding member of the Euclean Broadcasters Group, it was founded in 1936 as Azmaariś Râdio in order to consolidate the government's radio broadcasting efforts and adapt them for peacetime and would soon expand into television, gaining its current name in 1941, making it Azmara's oldest broadcaster within both mediums.

The company's remit includes three television channels broadcast nationwide on a free-to-air network, and seven radio stations, all of which are available both online and on digital audio broadcasting. It is owned entirely by the Ministry for Culture and Equality and is funded through a licence fee charged to all property owners within Azmara.

Financing

The traditional financing of ARF's budget has been through the imposition of a television licence fee on the occupants of each household of Azmara, with a rate of €175/year imposed between 2015 and 2021. However, the results of an inquiry by the Jorśsun government led to the a revamping of the funding system due to electoral promises made by the Workers', Green and Socialist parties - as a result of the Licence Fee Reform Act of 2018, since 1 September 2021 the licence fee's cost burden has been shifted from the tenants of a property to its owners, with the residents of government-owned social housing being exempt altogether - this also resulted in an increase in the licence fee to €200/year.

Services

Radio

• ARF-R1, a general music station intended for broad listening, with a mix of older music, adult contemporary and contemporary hits programming.
• ARF-R2, a spoken-word radio station geared towards current affairs, drama, comedy, science and history programmes.
• ARF-R3, a station providing rolling news and sports coverage.
• ARF-Folksliiden, a folk music-oriented station.
• ARF-J1, a youth-focused station with a focus on popular music and youth-oriented spoken programmes.
• ARF-J2, an underground music-focused station with shows focusing on alternative/indie, electronica, dance, hip hop and metal.
• ARF-K, a classical, opera and jazz-focused station.

Television

• ARF-1, a largely news-focused channel with current affairs, documentary and discussion programmes.
• ARF-2, a more entertainment-focused channel with focus on drama, comedy, sport and game shows as well as cinema.
• ARF-3, a more youth-focused channel launched in 1994 with children's television in the morning and young adult focused complementary shows to ARF-1 and ARF-2's programming in the afternoon and evening.

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  ARF-1's Logo

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  ARF-2's Logo

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  ARF-3's Logo

Notable programming

Many of ARF's programmes have reached fame both within Azmara and internationally.

Many of ARF-1's commentary and documentary programmes have had significant influence within the country. Hylagsdaaglekturen, an annual pair of lectures in natural and social science designed to appeal to a common audience, has notably launched the popular careers of many academics, with the 2007 lectures by economist Kaþeriina Eryksdohter on the causes of the 2005 Recession and astrophysicist Mikel Askerssun on the search for extra-terrestrial life seeing record viewing figures. The channel's weekly investigative documentary series, Utsejen, has been praised for its role in bringing light to many issues and scandals in Azmaran society, while its weekly political debate show, Folkspolitik, and its 6pm news show are consistently the highest watched shows on Azmaran television.