TV channels Algeria

Television in Algeria began on 24 December 1956, when the French RTF opened a transmitter in Algiers - and the channels the country watches today still carry the marks of that history: a public broadcaster grown out of the colonial-era start, a wave of private satellite stations, and a voice from London for the diaspora.

The Public Broadcaster

ENTV, known on air as Télévision Algérienne, is the flagship of the state-owned Public Establishment of Television, the oldest broadcasting service in the country. Broadcasting in Arabic from Algiers, it carries a generalist schedule of news, current affairs, variety entertainment and Algerian series and films, and today heads a whole family of thematic public channels.

The Private Satellite Wave

Private satellite broadcasting reshaped Algerian television, and news sits at its centre. Echorouk TV is an Arabic-language channel broadcasting from Algiers, set up by the Echourouk Group together with Arab intellectuals, combining news coverage with cultural and entertainment programming. Ennahar TV, launched by the Ennahar media group from Bir Mourad Rais, began as an experimental service in 2012 and developed into a news-oriented station. El Bilad TV extends the El Bilad daily newspaper, in print since 1999, into television with news, sport and current-affairs programming from the capital, while Elwatania TV adds another news-focused voice to the national mix.

A Voice from London

Almagharibia TV is an independent Algerian free-to-air satellite channel broadcasting from London. Aimed at viewers in Algeria and at the diaspora across the Maghreb, it built its name on open political talk shows and live call-in programmes that give airtime to opinions rarely heard on state television, including extensive coverage of the Hirak protest movement.

Beyond the Political Channels

Two further names round out Algerian viewing. Iqraa TV is not an Algerian station but the long-running pan-Arab Islamic channel founded in 1998 by Saleh Abdullah Kamel's Arab Media Corporation, present here with religious and social programming from an Islamic perspective. Chaîne Nord-Africaine is a regional service addressing audiences across North Africa, reflecting how naturally broadcasting crosses borders in the Maghreb.