Television in North Macedonia was first introduced in 1964; it remains the most popular news medium. The public broadcaster is the Macedonian Radio Television, founded in 1993. TEKO TV (1989) from Štip is the first private television channel in the country. Other popular private channels are: Sitel, Kanal 5, Telma, Alfa TV, Alsat-M and TV 24.Most private media are tied to political or business interests and state media tend to support the government. Public broadcast networks face stiff competition from commercial stations, which dominate the ratings. A European Union sponsored report says that with scores of TV and radio networks, the market is overcrowded and many local broadcasters are struggling to survive financially.[1]
DVB-T was introduced in Republic of North Macedonia in November, 2009 as a Pay TV platform known as BoomTV by ONE. The platform includes national channels with national frequency and the most popular world channels. Boom TV is using 3 multiplexes (MUX 1, MUX 2 and MUX 3). The DVB-T switch off in the country was completed on 1 June 2013.MRD (Republic of Macedonia Broadcasting Council) operates and maintains the DVB-T network in the Republic of North Macedonia and the public Macedonian Radio Television using MUX 4 and MUX 5 while ONE operates the private national and local TV stations in North Macedonia using MUX 6 and MUX 7.
The DVB-T transmissions in North Macedonia are standard-definition and high-definition, MPEG-4, X7F modulation, 64-QAM, 2/3 Code-rate.
+Nationwide free-to-air DVB-T television channels in North Macedonia | |||||
Name | Owner | Programming | Type | Encryption | MUX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | Parliament | Public broadcaster | Clear | 4 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 5 | |
Macedonian Radio Television | General | Public broadcaster | Clear | 5 | |
TV Alsat-M | General | Private channel | Clear | 6 | |
TV Kanal 5 | General | Private channel | Clear | 6 | |
TV Sitel | General | Private channel | Clear | 6 | |
TV Alfa | General | Private channel | Clear | 6 | |
TV Telma | General | Private channel | Clear | 6 | |
+Regional free-to-air DVB-T television channels in North Macedonia | ||||||
Name | Region | Programming | Type | Encryption | MUX | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
TV ERA | D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | |
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D1 Skopje | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D1 Veles | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
TV Hana | D2 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | |
D3 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D3 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D3 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D4 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D4 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D4 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D5 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D5 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D5 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D6 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D7 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D8 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D8 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D8 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 | ||
D8 | Regional | Private channel | Clear | 7 |
On 17 November 2008, IPTV was officially launched when the country's first IPTV service, MaxTV, was launched by Makedonski Telekom.
Cable television is highly developed, with cable television penetration in Skopje at 67% of all households. There are 49 cable TV providers with the two majors A1 and Telekabel holding 80% of the market. The two majors offer cable television in both analogue and digital, and they have also introduced triple play at the beginning of 2007.
Channels marked with an asterisk (*) have a Macedonian audio channel, all others have Macedonian subtitles only