TV channels Mali

Mali's television grew out of the capital: the state service began broadcasting from Bamako in 1983, and for years the national picture was the only one. The liberalisation of the airwaves brought private and thematic channels, and today the field mixes national coverage with entertainment services.

Broadcasting itself is older. Radio Soudan, a one-kilowatt station, opened in Bamako in 1957 under the French administration and became Radio Nationale du Mali after independence in 1960. On 22 September 1983 a television centre financed by Libya was inaugurated in the capital, allowing the Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Mali to put a single colour channel on the air; regional production followed in Ségou, Koulikoro, Sikasso and Mopti between 1986 and 1993.

The public service and the private wave

The state monopoly ended in 1992, when private broadcasters were legalised, and on 1 January 1993 the service was reorganised as the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Mali. The ORTM today runs the national channels ORTM 1 and ORTM 2 alongside its radio networks, broadcasting mostly in French with hours in Bambara and other national languages, and its football nights carrying the Malian Première Division are a fixture of the week. Since 2007 its television has also been beamed by satellite towards Europe, while the francophone channel TV5 Monde is received almost everywhere in the country.

Private stations broadcasting from Bamako - Africable, Cheriflah TV, Renouveau TV, TM1, Mande TV, Joliba TV - have widened the choice, two Malian companies sell subscription bouquets of thematic channels, and the Haute Autorité de la Communication regulates the whole sector.

Entertainment in the lineup

D3 TV is the entertainment channel of the Malian lineup, carrying the lighter side of the country's screens. A recent addition to the private field, it presents itself as the television of Malian culture and talent - talk shows and debates on the life of Malian society alongside series, cinema, documentaries and reality formats, a channel that, in its own words, tells Mali differently.

From national events in Bamako to the life of the regions, Malian television remains the shared screen of a large Sahelian country.