Created by the decree of 25 April 1957, Radiodiffusion-télévision tunisienne (RTT) becomes ERTT by the law of 7 May 1990. It was a shareholder in
Euronews, a member of the
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the
African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) and the flagship member of the
Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU). On 7 November 2006, President
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali announces the split of the establishment into two separate entities: Tunisian Radio Establishment (Arabic: مؤسسة الإذاعة التونسية) and Tunisian Television Establishment (Arabic: مؤسسة التلفزة التونسية). This split becomes effective on 31 August 2007. Both ERTT successor companies are members of the EBU, AUB and ASBU. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, television made its appearance with the transmission of
RAI broadcasts in the northeast of the country. From 1963, certain programs were broadcast by Tunisian public television on an experimental basis or on the occasion of special events. The first test broadcast took place in October 1965, with a program schedule lasting 75 minutes. The following year, regular broadcasts began with the official opening of RTT on May 31, 1966. Initially, the channel broadcast three hours a day, two hours in Arabic and one hour of French-language programs. In this context, it began developing cooperation with French-speaking television, in particular
Télévision Suisse Romande, which provided it with programs and welcomed trainees in its Geneva studios. By 1976, Tunisian television began broadcasting in color, and in June 1983, the channel changed its name to RTT 1, in connection with the establishment of the French-language television channel (a collaboration between Tunisia's RTT and French broadcaster
ORTF with programming from La deuxième chaîne (The Second Channel), later Antenne 2 following the breakup of ORTF and now
France 2). RTT 2 was closed in 1989 and the following year replaced by Arabic language channel until 1994 when Canal 21 was launched. French programming from France 2 continued to be aired until the end of October 1999. The two national channels later changed their names several times and are currently
El Watania 1 and
El Watania 2 since 2011. ==Services==