A television service was initially due in 1963.
Television transmission in
Jordan started in
black and white in April 1968 from one studio, with three hours of programming. It started as
JTV (Jordan Television Corporation) and received support from a US advisor, RTV International, who outbid the
BBC. JTV was admitted as a full active member of the
European Broadcasting Union in 1970. The following years witnessed several milestones for JTV. In 1972, it became the first station in the
region to operate a second channel, Channel 2, which specialised in foreign programmes, including a news bulletin in English. In 1974, JTV started transmission in full colours using the
PAL-B system, and in 1975, transmission was expanded to cover the entire Kingdom. The first face of JTV was Ghada Haddadin, who later acted as the anchor for English news. Notorious was JTV's censorship of the
1978 Eurovision Song Contest, which saw
Izhar Cohen's song
A-Ba-Ni-Bi being replaced by static photos of daffodils, due to supposed "technical problems". The channel also ended its broadcast when it became apparent that Israel was going to win the contest, by cutting earlier and saying that Belgium won the contest instead. From 1987, Hala Kharouba served as the host of the English channel. Along with the English programmes on
Channel 2, JTV started transmission of French news bulletins and programmes in 1978. In 1985, Jordan Radio and Jordan Television merged to form Jordan Radio and Television Corporation (
JRTV).
Amra Satellite Earth Station was established in 1988 and was linked to the satellites:
Eutelsat,
Intelsat and
Arabsat. In 1993, the Jordan Satellite Channel was launched and in 1998, a third channel was launched,
Channel 3, which was devoted to transmitting the Parliamentary sessions and local and international sports. In January 2001, the corporation underwent major restructuring. Programmes of Channel 1 and 2 were combined in one main channel. Channel 2 specialised in sports, while Channel 3 was operated in cooperation with the private sector, on the basis of two transmission periods: the morning and afternoon "Cartoon Channel" and the evening "Jordan Movie Channel". Al-Urdunniyya can be viewed through live streaming online at jrtv.jo. ==Services==