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Korean Central Television

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This article is about North Korean television service. For the operator of the service, see Korean Central Broadcasting Committee. For South Korean broadcasting network with the name "Chosun", see TV Chosun.

Korean Central Television
조선중앙텔레비죤
CountryNorth Korea
Broadcast areaNational
International
HeadquartersPyongyang, North Korea
Programming
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerKorean Central Broadcasting Committee
History
LaunchedMarch 3, 1963; 61 years ago (1963-03-03)
Former namesPyongyang Television
(1 September 1953 – 1961)
Central Television Broadcasting System of the DPRK
(1961 – 3 January 1973)
Availability
Terrestrial
AnalogueChannel R12 (223.25 MHz in Pyongyang)
DigitalTests underway[1]
Streaming media
elufatv on Twitch
(live streaming)		KCTV＿LIVE
Bulgeunbyeol TVRed Star TV
KCNA Watch
(with delay)		KCNA Watch
DASHDASH
Korean Central Television
Chosŏn'gŭl
조선중앙텔레비죤
Hancha
朝鮮中央텔레비죤
Revised RomanizationJoseon Jungang Tellebijyon
McCune–ReischauerChosŏn Chungang T'ellebijyon
People in Pyongyang watch a public display of KCTV.

Korean Central Television (KCTV; Korean: 조선중앙텔레비죤; MR: Chosŏn Chungang T'ellebijyon) is a television service operated by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in North Korea.

History

KCTV was established on 1 September 1953 as Pyongyang Television after the Korean War ended. Kim Il-sung personally envisioned that the time was ripe for television broadcasting in North Korea, but this was not yet to happen. Thus, the young service began an 8-year period of preparation for commencement of television broadcasts, with the help of the national government.

The station later was renamed as Central Television Broadcasting System in 1961, and conducted on 1 September the same year its first test broadcasts.

The CTBS-DPRK officially began operations on 3 March 1963 at 19:00 (7:00 pm) KST based in Pyongyang, broadcasting two hours between 19:00 (7:00 pm) until 21:00 (9:00 pm) KST on weekdays only, and then expanding to 4 and later 6 hours.

The network carried live the whole proceedings of the 5th Workers' Party of Korea Congress held on 1 October 1970.

The CTBS would later be renamed Korean Central Television (KCTV) and was officially relaunched at 17:00 (5:00 pm) local time on 3 January 1973 (the first working day in 1973 in North Korea). The broadcasting hours were only on weekdays (workdays in North Korea) and closed on weekends and national holidays.

KCTV officially began color television broadcasts on 1 July 1974 and broadcast the first live color telecast in preparation for the 7th Asian Games held in Tehran via satellite transmission on 1 September 1974, the first network to do so. KCTV was the first live color television channel to broadcast the New Year's Eve in color on 31 December 1974, and in 1975 began weekend broadcasts as well. KCTV started their full-time color broadcasts on 1 September 1977.

The first broadcast received via satellite television broadcasts was the opening of the 22nd Summer Olympic Games on 19 July 1980.

KCTV started broadcasting on national holidays on 1 March 1981. On national holidays, the broadcasting time of each station is the same as weekends save for major ones.

The channel was the official host broadcaster of the 1989 13th World Festival of Youth and Students.

On 19 January 2015, KCTV started experimental high-definition television broadcasts via digital satellite as part of its modernization of the network. Although the broadcaster has been producing a growing number of shows in 16:9 format for several years, the station was still natively broadcasting in 4:3 format and widescreen programmes therefore had to be shown letterboxed. For satellite transmissions, this meant that the station's 4:3 output was broadcast with black bars on both sides, resulting in widescreen programmes getting windowboxed.[2][3]

The station began natively broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen with stereophonic sound on 4 December 2017, one of the last state-run broadcasters to do so, albeit several years after other developed nations have done so. To reflect this change, the station's graphics have been refreshed and its test card has been changed for the first time since 1980.[4]

On 26 August 2020, KCTV broadcast through the night, for the first time, to monitor the progress of Typhoon Bavi. This included live reports from the State Hydro-Meteorological Administration and outdoors.[5][6][7]

Current programming and schedules

Nowadays,[when?] the KCTV broadcasts only 12 hours and 45 minutes each day from 11:30 until 0:15 PYT daily, and 17 hours from 07:50 to 00:50 PYT or later on Sundays and key national holidays. There is another exception, for the emergency events in North Korea at night or daytime, it starts up without any announcers or the Voice of Korea interval signal. The station is open until that event becomes normal. The station's output was dominated by propaganda programs focusing on the history and achievements of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army (KPA) and Kim Jong-un. News topics cover range from new construction projects to history lessons about the accomplishments and past of the "founding father" Kim Il-sung, as well as his son Kim Jong-il, and grandson and current leader Kim Jong-un and the Juche idea. Other program topics such as health and education are also aired. Locally produced feature films, children's programs, and patriotic musical shows and filmed theatre shows are also shown on the networks. On national holidays, military parades, musical performances and movies, plus more special programs are shown on all three networks.

By December 2018, Korean Central Television's programs had begun to gain a more contemporary feel, toning down the previous historical propaganda programming in favor of showcasing the North Korean people. Programming was observed to have featured more field reporting with visible anchors, and a looser, more energetic presentation, as opposed to the strictly authoritarian style used before. The station also began to employ younger on-air personalities, reporters wearing modern attire, and presentation elements such as double boxes, drone-mounted aerial cameras, and including production staff on-camera (such as a staff member interrupting the news anchor to deliver her an update to a previous story) to give the programs a more dynamic and unedited feel.[8] Kim Jong-un's New Year's address also experienced a change in style, with the leader delivering the speech from an armchair in a library room rather than from a podium. Experiments with further modernization occurred in March and May 2019, when the channel's newscasts began experimenting with more extensive use of three-dimensional infographics (including 3D text overlaid into video footage), drone footage, and time-lapse video during economic reports.[9][10]

Analysts felt that these shifts in tone were intended to make the programmes' production values more in line with international broadcasters (appealing to those that have managed to access such programmes), and to make the propaganda-based programmes more appealing to younger audiences.[11][9][12][13]

KCTV first broadcast overnight on the evening of August 26, 2020 to cover the impact of Typhoon Bavi.[5] Since then, KCTV broadcast overnight during typhoon to updates on the typhoon impact and warnings issued around the country.[14]

The following illustrates part of a typical day's broadcasting on KCTV on weekdays:

Broadcast time Broadcast programs Approximate broadcast durations
Welcome to KCTV at 11:30 Pyongyang Time
11:30-12:00 Highly modified version of the Philips PM5544 (4:3), Philips PM5644 (16:9), Test Pattern with digital clock and multiple elements including color bars, resolution grids and other markings (the audio is music – usually classical or patriotic – and clock ident with the 8-note chime of "Song of General Kim Il-sung" as time signal) 30 minutes
12:00-12:10 National anthem, introduction announcement, "Song of General Kim Il-sung" (instrumental version) & "Song of General Kim Jong-il" (instrumental version), television listings 10 minutes
12:10-13:20 Special events recap 1 hour 10 minutes
13:20-14:00 Documentary specials 40 minutes
14:00-14:20 Afternoon News ("Report", 보도 –Bodo–) 20 minutes
14:20-14:30 Press Review (오늘호 중앙신문개관) 10 minutes
14:30-16:00 Children's Broadcast time (cartoons, anecdotes of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, etc.) 1 hour 30 minutes
16:00-16:30 Law enforcement show 30 minutes
16:30-17:30 Military show (chorus, parade, exercises, etc.); also includes the military comedy show It's So Funny 1 hour
17:30-17:50 Sports 20 minutes
17:50-18:15 The evening news ("Report", 보도 –Bodo–) 25 minutes
18:15-18:20 Weather forecast 5 minutes
18:30-20:30 Sitcom (usually revolutionary or daily life themed TV series) 2 hours
20:30-22:50 Drama show 2 hours 20 minutes
22:50-23:50 Feature Film 1 hour
23:50-23:55 The late night news ("Among the Report today", 오늘의 보도중에서 –Oneul'ui Bodojeung'eseo–) 5 minutes
23:55-0:00 Weather forecast 5 minutes
0:00-0:10 Music videos 10 minutes
0:10-0:15 TV listings for tomorrow, sign-off announcement, National Flag and music 《빛나는 조국》 ("Our Shining Country") 5 minutes
0:15-11:30 Off the air. 8-bar Test Pattern with 1 kHz tone (tone but still black screen starts about 1.5 minutes after black screen start and lasts about 10 seconds at which point RF signal is completely cut; RF transmission begins again 21 minutes later the content of this transmission is bars+tone; bars without tone starts 1.25 minutes before beginning of next program cycle) 11 hours and 15 minutes

News service

Newsreaders wear the same outfit every day, though they may vary in color (black and blue for male newsreaders and green and pink for female). Newscasters must strongly project their voices when on air. Newscasts start typically with a blank red or blue slide, followed by a slow fade to the anchor. The set has the background of Pyongyang with the Taedong river. Nowadays even Mt. Baekdu or another view of Pyongyang is used as the background for the newscasts; however, a newer studio was introduced in September 2012, including a background LCD panel (paid by CCTV of PRC) where live images (such as a revolving globe or the flag of North Korea) are shown. This technological advancement allows live reportages, though it has not been used for that purpose.

North Korean newscasts were long known for being melodramatic. Newsreaders use one of five tones—a lofty, wavering one for praising the nation's leaders, an explanatory one for weather forecasts, a conversational one for uncontroversial stories, one denouncing the West and a mournful tone for announcing the death of a North Korean official or leader. Many North Korean journalists who have defected to the South have noted the contrasts with the more conversational South Korean broadcasting style. Longtime chief newsreader Ri Chun-hee was well known for her melodramatic style.[15]

From 2012 the news intro uses the Juche Tower and a revolving globe before the news logo appears, with the introduction from the song "Might of Korea" as background music. The late-night version uses slow instrumental music. The main 20:00 news and 22:30 late news program intros were updated again in 2014, with the same musical background but with a new logo and graphics. The introduction begins with the map of the world, zooming into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), then a wall of clips from the station's news programming including one of the country's mass parades, a rocket launch, scenes from farming and industries, and several sports. The introduction ends with the Earth wrapped around a band of the flag of North Korea and the Korean characters (보도) for "Report".

Broadcasting

The station began its first color broadcasts on 1 July 1974 following the PAL system with 576i scanning lines.

On 54th anniversary of Workers' Party of Korea in 1999, KCTV started relay reception by a communication satellite television via Thaicom 3.

In March 2012 the news readers began presenting news items in front of a computer-generated background. A graphic to accompany the story appears above the right or left shoulder — a style almost universally used in other countries by that time. When the report begins the graphic moves forward to fill the screen.

In September 2012, China Central Television of PRC, pledged about US$800,000 of equipment to help improve its news broadcast. Since then news were shown with a screen panel that shows images and videos in movement.[16]

On 2012, KCTV began to test broadcast on DVB-T2 system for Digital Terrestrial Television.[17][1]

Korean Central Television's used the Pyongyang TV Tower as transmission sites.

Official, government-sanctioned and -operated television stations are the only ones that citizens are allowed to watch. Any television sets acquired by citizens are altered by the government beforehand[citation needed], to receive only the official channels. This includes a tamper-evident seal which will show if the television's owner has attempted to tamper with components of the television. This is seen as evidence of that person attempting to receive foreign television from Mainland China, South Korea, Japan or Taiwan, and if discovered, the owner is subject for harsh penalties including imprisonment in one of North Korea's many[quantify] forced-labour concentration camps.[18]

Availability

Outside North Korea

On August 1, 2010, KCTV was broadcast free-to-air on Thaicom 5 until February 25, 2020 so with the appropriate equipment can be picked up in Southeast Asia, Australasia, Middle East, Africa and Europe.[19] In April 2015, KCTV expanded its satellite broadcast coverage in America and Europe via Intelsat 21.[20]

Since March 2019, KCTV HD Thaicom 5 signal is also being relayed by Koreasat 5A, a South Korean satellite owned by KT Sat, a unit of KT Corporation, to allow media outlets and journalists base in Seoul to continue monitoring the channel. This is due to the new 5G cellular networks which was launched in the city uses frequencies that overlap with KCTV satellite frequency, making the feed unwatchable.[21]

On January 18, 2020, KCTV moved its satellite broadcast on ChinaSat 12 as the Thaicom 5 began experiencing technical difficulties around December 2019.[22]

The daily KCTV news bulletin is also distributed online with Japanese subtitles through a Chongryon-supported website.

Test card

During the last 30 minutes of the broadcast of the tuning table, patriotic songs or classical musical works of the DPRK are played. There are minor test card changes from time-to-time.

  • Former test card used until 3 December 2017
    Former test card used until 3 December 2017
  • Test card in use since 4 December 2017
    Test card in use since 4 December 2017

See also

Sources

  1. ^ a b "Report: DPRK testing digital TV". North Korea Tech - 노스코리아테크. 17 March 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  2. ^ KCTV launches HD satellite broadcasts Archived 16 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine North Korean Tech (www.northkoreantech.org). 19 January 2015. Retrieved on 6 June 2015.
  3. ^ KCTV’s slow move to high-definition, what’s taking so long? Archived 16 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine North Korean Tech (www.northkoreantech.org). 15 May 2015. Retrieved on 6 June 2015.
  4. ^ "North Korea's KCTV goes widescreen, stereo in big upgrade". North Korea Tech - 노스코리아테크. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  5. ^ a b Williams, Martyn (28 August 2020). "We Interrupt this Propaganda...A Dynamic 24 Hours on North Korean TV". 38 North. The Henry L. Stimson Center. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  6. ^ https://www.nknews.org/2020/08/north-korea-reports-real-time-typhoon-damage-in-rare-overnight-broadcasts/
  7. ^ 朝鮮中央テレビが24時間テレビ状態で台風情報を夜通し伝える. KoreaWorldTimes (in Japanese). 29 August 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  8. ^ Cho, Joohee (2 December 2018). "North Korea's state TV gets a quiet makeover, adding neon suits and smiles to newscasts best known for delivering the party line". ABC News. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  9. ^ a b "With New Style And Graphics, North Korea Gives Propaganda A Makeover". NPR.org. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  10. ^ Williams, Martyn (7 May 2019). "New graphics in regular use during North Korean TV's economic news segments". North Korea Tech - 노스코리아테크. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  11. ^ McCurry, Justin (26 March 2019). "Propaganda, but with graphics: North Korea's news bulletins get a makeover". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  12. ^ Williams, Martyn (13 January 2019). "Kim Jong Un's New Year's Address: The Art of Propaganda". North Korea Tech. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  13. ^ "North Korean propaganda gets makeover to appeal to youth". CNN. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  14. ^ https://www.nknews.org/2020/09/north-koreas-east-coast-hit-with-damaging-typhoon-and-floods-state-tv-shows/
  15. ^ The voice of North Korea. Dec 8, 2009. The World Archived 4 June 2012 at archive.today
  16. ^ 探访朝鲜电视台 Archived 10 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Xinhua.
  17. ^ "北朝鮮で4局が地上デジタル放送を実施中、ASUS ZenFone Go TVで確認". blogofmobile.com (in Japanese). 8 September 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. ^ https://www.northkoreatech.org/2010/10/19/kctv-moving-transponders-on-thaicom-5/
  20. ^ https://www.northkoreatech.org/2015/04/15/north-korean-tv-expands-satellite-transmissions/
  21. ^ https://www.northkoreatech.org/2019/03/25/kctv-on-koreasat/
  22. ^ Williams, Martyn (5 February 2020). "KCTV appears on Chinese satellite". Archived from the original on 5 February 2020.
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