| RTA ملی | |
| Launch Date: | 19 August 1978 |
| Picture Format: | 720p HDTV |
| Owner: | Radio Television Afghanistan |
| Country: | Afghanistan |
| Area: | Afghanistan Europe North America Asia |
| Headquarters: | Kabul |
| Sister Channels: | RTA Sport RTA News RTA Education |
| Terr Serv 1: | Oqaab |
| Terr Chan 1: | Channel 3 |
Afghanistan National Television (تلویزیون ملی Televizion-e Milli-ye Afghanistan, Pushto; Pashto: ملی تلویزیون Da Afghanistan Milli Televizion) is the state-owned television channel in Afghanistan. It is part of the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) public broadcaster.
Afghan television was launched on 19 August 1978, Afghan Independence Day, in a ceremony headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki. Since the beginning its broadcasts were in colour.[1]
In 1983 three new stations were commissioned in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat, however they started broadcasting some months later. On 2 January 1985 the broadcasts started in Jalalabad while a new station in Badakhshan Province finished its construction. On 3 February 1985 a new station opened in Ghazni,[2] while in the same month broadcasts started in Kandahar and Herat.[3]
During the Taliban regime, Afghanistan National Television ceased operations when television was banned, and on 8 July 1998 they ordered the destruction of all TV sets.[4] [5] After the Taliban were overthrown, television in Afghanistan restarted on 18 November 2001.[6]
In 2019, RTA launched a sister channel to the main station called RTA Sport, which is dedicated to sports content.[7]
RTA became famous worldwide when Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a live speech to the world minutes after dozens of insurgents attempted to assassinate him at a military parade, which was thwarted by the Afghan National Army.[8] The scene of the attempt was also broadcast live to RTA viewers in Afghanistan and picked up by the international media.[9]
Afghanistan National Television became available in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Africa, Asia Pacific, and North America on 5 January 2008. The channel's broadcasting hours were 06:00 to 00:00 (local Afghan time), corresponding to 01:30 to 19:30 UTC; later that year it started broadcasting 24 hours. As of 2018, it is no longer broadcast on the Hot Bird satellite in Europe.[10]
Currently the channel broadcasts on the TürkmenÄlem 52°E / MonacoSAT satellite to viewers in and around Afghanistan and in Europe, and western Asia. It also broadcasts on GSAT-19 for viewers in the Indian subcontinent.[11]