Channel 3

Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to:

Television channels

TV3 (Catalonia)

TV3 (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈte ˈβe ˈtɾɛs]) is the primary television channel of Catalan public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya, a subsidiary of the CCMA. TV3 broadcasts programs only in Catalan, with an optional dual track in the original language for some foreign-language series and movies. TV3 is also a founding member of FORTA, the Federation of Autonomic Radio and Television Organizations of Spain. It is funded by the Generalitat political organization.

History

TV3 started its trial broadcasts on 10 September 1983 (a day before the National Day of Catalonia), but its regular broadcasts started a few months later, on 16 January 1984. TV3 was the first television channel to broadcast only in Catalan. In 1985, TV3 expanded its coverage to Andorra, Northern Catalonia, the Balearic islands and the Valencian Community, also Catalan-speaking lands. One year later, TV3 inaugurated its new headquarters in Sant Joan Despí, near Barcelona.

Since 1987, TV3 has broadcast a second audio channel on almost all foreign-language series and movies with the original program audio, first using the Zweikanalton system and currently using NICAM. Local series and movies are usually broadcast in NICAM stereo, although sometimes an audio narration track for blind and visually impaired viewers is provided instead. In other occasions, an Aranese language track is provided.

TV3 (Czech Republic)

TV3 was an analogue terrestrial, cable and digital satellite television channel broadcasting in the Czech Republic. The station used to broadcast in some regions via analogue terrestrial television to 30% of the population in the Czech Republic,cable television and also via the Czechlink platform on the Eutelsat 28A satellite. TV3 was also planning to become part of the plans for digital terrestrial to increase its reach to 75% of the Czech Republic. The station closed in December 2001 after its broadcast license was revoked.

Launch

TV3 launched on May 25, 2000 using the regional frequencies of defunct television station Galaxie. The station launched at 1900 CET with a 60-minute regional news programme followed by the film Seductive Beauty. Programming on TV3 included regional breaking news programming with reporters on motorbikes alongside other general entertainment programming and the purchase of the rights to show WWE Friday Night SmackDown in 2001. The station used the tag "television for the new millennium" for its promotion, with its target audience skewed towards a young male audience. The opening night of TV3 was hit by technical glitches during the launch night news programming.