ETB1

Country	Spain
Broadcast area	Basque Country and Navarre
Network	ETB
Headquarters	Bilbao, Basque Country
Programming
Picture format	1080i HDTV
Ownership
Owner	EITB
Sister channels	ETB 2 ETB 3 ETB 4 ETB Basque
History
Launched	31 December 1982; 41 years ago (1982-12-31) (testing) 16 February 1983; 41 years ago (1983-02-16) (official)
Former names	ETB (1983–1986)
Links
Website	eitb.eus/eu/telebista/etb1/
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television	Álava: Channel 45 Biscay: Channel 35 French Basque Country: Channel 33 Gipuzkoa: Channel 48 Navarre: Channel 26

ETB 1 (ETB Bat) is the first television channel from the Euskal Irrati Telebista group in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and the French Basque Country.

The channel broadcasts entirely in the Basque language.

History

In 1979 the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country was approved, the document contained the possibility of creating broadcast media owned by the Basque government,^[1] which would be used for the normalization of the Basque language.^[2]

The channel began test transmissions on 31 December 1982 and officially launched on 16 February 1983 as ETB, using this name until the launch of its sister ETB 2 on 31 May 1986, at which point ETB was renamed to ETB 1. A HD feed of ETB 1 was launched on 21 December 2016.

ETB 1 was the first regional channel in Spain, also becoming the first channel to break the monopoly held by TVE 1 and TVE 2.^[3]

Its reception area comprises the whole Basque Country — i.e. the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and the Northern Basque Country — and some surrounding places.

Programming

Its programming includes: interviews, films, documentaries, sports, youth and children's programmes, making a strong emphasis on sports and children's programming.

The EiTB group's second main television channel, ETB 2, broadcasts in Spanish.