Kurdistan Broadcasting System
| File:KKTV.PNG | |
Native name | Pergala Weşanên Kurdistan |
|---|---|
| Television corporation | |
| Industry | Mass Media |
| Founded | 1 May 1955 (television) |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Kurdistan |
Key people | Sohrab Hayati (general director) |
| Products | Broadcasting, websites |
| Services | radio (as Kurdistan National Radio), television, online |
| Owner | (TBC) |
Number of employees | 75,200 (2012/13) |
| Website | www.pwk.com |
Kurdistan Broadcasting System, also known as KBS or PWK (Kurdish: Pergala Weşana Kurdistan) is the national Kurdish-language television network of Kurdistan and was founded in 1964.
The KBS was for many years the only television and radio provider in Kurdistan. Before the introduction of commercial radio in 1990, and subsequently commercial television in 1992, it held a monopoly on broadcasting. More recent deregulation of the Kurdish television broadcasting market produced analogue cable television. Today, KBS broadcasts around the world, especially in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
KBS's predecessor, "Radyoya Kurdistanê" was one of 24 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950; it would return to the EBU fold as KBS in 1972. The original company started radio test broadcasts in 1926, with a studio built in Hewler in 1936 and a studio in Amed following in 1939.
History
Television channels
Domestic
- PWK 1 - General entertainment channel with a broad schedule featuring local and foreign series, Kurdish, Persian and Hollywood cinema, live shows with Kurdish folk music, Turkish classical music and pop music, live sport, news & current affairs plus special events such as the Eurovision Song Contest.
- PWK 2 - Highbrow channel with a broad schedule featuring cultural and educational shows, heavy promotion of the arts (Kurdish and international), cultural talkshows, documentaries, and local and foreign films.
- PWK Sporê - Live and archive sport including Formula 1, World and European Figure Skating Championships, World and European Athletics Championships, Kurdish Women's Volleyball league, U18 Basketball plus feature programmes.
- PWK Zarok - Children's programming, animated programmes and educational programmes. The station now broadcasts 24 hours a day.
- PWK Tirkî - Channel broadcasting in Turkish language. Used to broadcast in Turkey until the 2016 coup attempt
- PWK Ermenî - Channel broadcasting in Armenian language.
- PWK Suryanî- Channel broadcasting in Syriac language.
- PWK Erebî - Broadcasts 24 hours a day in Arabic language with programs aimed at Arabs in Kurdistan, as well as the wider Arab world and Middle East.
- PWK Mûzîk (launched November 2010) - 24-hour music channel with Kurdish and Persian folk and classical music. It also airs pop, rock, jazz & ethnic music.
- PWK Belgeyî (launched November 2011) - 24-hour documentary channel.
- PWK Nûçe (launched May 2010) - News and current affairs, sports news and weather.
- PWK HD (launched August 2010) - Former High definition television channel of KBS broadcasting several programmes from the other KBS channels in HD format.
- PWK 4K (launched June 2015) - Ultra HD television channel of KBS. This is the first 4K television channel in Kurdistan.[4]
- PWK SFR TV (launched March 2020) - Remote education channel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The channel is split into 2 groups: Bingehîn (primary school) and Dûwemdor (high school).
International
- PWK Kurdî (16:9, not encoded in DVB signal) - International news, current affairs, documentaries and cultural programming aimed at both Kurds and Kurdish speaking audience living abroad. It's the first KBS channel to make extensive use of a private production company for news programming.
- PWK Ranî (launched March 2009) - International channel aimed at Iranian countries like Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as Kurds living in the Caucasus. The channel has a focus on entertainment and documentaries as opposed to TRT Kurdî's new focus on news. Programmes are broadcast in a mixture of languages including Kurdish, Persian, Pashto, Tajik and Turkmen.
- PWK International - International news, current affairs, documentaries and cultural programming in English for international audiences.
Minority languages hinde
KBS has a special TV channel for Turkish that broadcasts on a 24-hour / 7-day basis called PWK Tirkî and other TV and Radio stations that broadcast programmes in the local languages and dialects like Armenian, Arabic, Assyrian and Circassian a few hours a week