Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, or CyBC, is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic television channels, and uses one satellite channel for the Cypriot diaspora. It also transmits on a separate high definition channel.
CyBC is a public broadcaster, meaning it is non profit and thus has no shareholders.
CyBC was partially funded by a tax on electric bills, a practice which ended on 1 July 2000; CyBC is currently funded by the state budget. The amount of the tax was dependent on the size of the home and, as a hypothecated tax for public television, was similar in principle to the television licence systems in other countries. The corporation is a member of the international broadcasting community, belonging to the European Broadcasting Union, the Broadcasting Organisation of Non-Aligned Countries and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.
History and legal framework
CyBC began as the Cyprus Broadcasting Service, with its first radio broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday, 4 October 1953. Programmes were broadcast in Greek, Turkish and English on 434 and 495 metres medium wave. The station provided a free weekly broadcast known as Radio Cyprus.Television broadcasting began on 1 October 1957. Broadcasts were initially five days a week, averaging three hours a day, and the service covered a radius of 33 kilometres from Nicosia.
On 1 January 1959, the CBS ceased to be a government department and was renamed the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation under Chapter 300A of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Act. The corporation was modelled in part on the British Broadcasting Corporation. CyBC was admitted as an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union on 1 January 1964, becoming an active member five years later.
As the state broadcaster, CBC is responsible for implementing the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. According to Article 171 of the constitution:
Article 19 of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Act states:
Television
CyBC operates three domestic channels and an international service for the Cypriot diaspora. It also carries Euronews, and ERT World. On 1 July 2011 all analogue television transmissions ended, and CyBC broadcasts on its own DVB-T network.RIK 1
features news and current-affairs programming in Greek: political, financial and sports news; documentaries and feature films, operas, concerts, ballets and plays.RIK 2
primarily carries entertainment programming: Cypriot and foreign series, feature films, Cypriot and foreign movies, music and children's programmes. It also broadcasts news in Greek, Turkish and English. Since 1 February 1993, PIK2 has simulcast Euronews as part of its daily schedule.RIK HD
RIK HD channel simulcasts domestic and international special events along with the standard-definition channels. Events simulcast in HD by CyBC in 2013 included Formula 1 auto racing, Grand Prix motorcycle racing, the Eurovision Song Contest and the FIFA Confederations Cup.RIK Satellite
RIK Satellite is the international service of RIK TV, broadcasting to Europe and North America. It is currently available as a free-to-air service in Europe on the Hellas Sat 2 and Eutelsat 33E satellites and as a digital terrestrial television channel in Greece.In North America, Titan Television is the distributor for Canada and the United States. On 23 September 2014, the channel debuted in Canada on Bell Fibe TV.