On this day in 1966, ERT broadcasts for the first time

“As of today, the National Radio Foundation is introducing its new evening schedule for the technical tests of the experimental television transmitter. Every night from six-thirty to about eight-thirty we will broadcast a series of test broadcasts with a variety of content.”

With these words, television presenter Eleni Kypraiou inaugurated the operation of Greece’s public broadcaster ERT (which was named National Radio Foundation at the time), on February 23, 1966 at 6:30pm.

Kypraiou welcomed almost 1,500 viewers to the broadcast.

The technological equipment and the means of television broadcasting in the first years of Greek television were standard.

The films, documentaries and news that complemented the program were projected through a 16mm or 35mm film camera on the wall and simultaneously filmed by the television camera and broadcasted on television.

*Watch ERT’s first broadcast:

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