November 7, 1959 – BNT started its professional broadcasting

On November 7, 1959 the Bulgarian National Television accomplished its first professional broadcast, showing the parade on the occasion of the Great October Revolution. The official start of the national television took place later in the year – on December 26. Today’s Channel 1 initially was titled Bulgarian Television and First Programme of the Bulgarian Television. The first director of the media was Mr. Borislav Petrov, who ran it until December 31, 1960. In 1974 the Second Television Programme started (later called Efir 2). After Bulgaria started official DVB-T transmissions on March 1, 2013, BNT got its own multiplex, which is available nationally and is operated by First Digital Ltd. The multiplex includes BNT 1 and BNT 2. The first new channel to be included to the multiplex is the new HDTV channel BNT HD.