History of Ictimai

Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company has been in operation as Azerbaijan’s public broadcaster since 2005.

On April 16, 2005, Ismayil Omarov was elected from among 22 candidates to the post of Director General of Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company by the Broadcasting Council. At the 2009 elections Ismayil Omarov was re-elected to the same post for the second term.

Today Public TV and Radio has its own unique programming policy among national broadcasters. Airtime is dominated by talk shows focussed mainly on social, economic and political issues, and by educational programmes that meet the needs of our audiences. Public TV and Radio is broadcast 24 hours a day to most countries of the world via Turksat and Hotbird satellites, and to the whole world via our official website at www.itv.az.

Today Public TV offers its audiences a host of original programmes and shows including Jarchi (Messenger) information bulletin in Azerbaijani and Russian; Yekun (Conclusion) analytical program focussed on social and political topics; ADA meclisi (ADA sessions) that discuss the most problematic issues of international relations with the participation of world-known political scientists; Achig ders (Model lesson) which is dedicated to problems of national education, access to the world, and the unity of education and science; talk shows like Charpaz baxish (Cross view), Ortag mexrec (Common denominator), Ishguzar zaman (Business time) devoted to most debated social issues; intellectual programmes such as Xamsa and Virtual ring;,as well as Səhər Sovqatı (Morning gift), Bir mahnının tarixçəsi (History of a song), Xalq mahnıları (National songs), and Bakı sirləri (Secrets of Baku). Every morning Public TV in partnership with TRT Avaz presents Yeni gun (New Day) – a programme dedicated to the history, culture and music of our country and broadcast to the whole Turkic world.

We have established a department of minorities in our company, which produces colourful programming about all the minorities living in Azerbaijan regardless of whether the actual number of citizens belonging to a certain minority is large or very small.

The programs produced and broadcast by Public TV in collaboration with TRT, Turkish TV and Radio Company, gained a lot of success and, as a result, drew Central Asian countries to this grand project. Public TV implements various projects with Georgia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries and establishes live TV bridges with these states. Duna TV of Hungary declares one day of a year as Day of Azerbaijan and broadcasts our films and programmes in the Hungarian language.

Since 2007 Public TV and Radio is the only Azerbaijani member of the world’s most influential TV and Radio enterprise, the European Broadcasting Union. The studios of Public TV and Radio meet modern standards and are supplied with modern equipment. We cooperate with the leading TV companies of the world in staff development. Our employees attend trainings held in the USA, Great Britain, France, and Turkey. Public TV pays special attention to the professional development of its employees and the procurement of modern equipment.