Andorra · 25 years of public broadcasting in Andorra

The reference point of the anniversary is the establishment of its own public broadcasting system in 1991. At that time, Ràdio Nacional d’Andorra began operating. A public television service followed a few years later with Andorra Televisió. The year count on the coin therefore refers to the beginning of public broadcasting as a whole and not to radio and television having started simultaneously.

Broadcasting from Andorra had already existed before then. The commercial broadcaster Radio Andorra had been transmitting since the period before the Second World War, primarily for a foreign audience. Because of its powerful transmitter, it could be received particularly in France and Spain. However, it was not a national public broadcaster of the Andorran state and ceased operations in the early 1980s. The public broadcasting system from 1991 must therefore be distinguished institutionally from this earlier radio history.

The establishment of its own state media took place during a period of political reorganisation. Andorra developed from a traditionally administered Pyrenean state into a parliamentary democracy; the Constitution entered into force in 1993. Its own radio and, later, television service enabled regular reporting on the government, parliament, municipalities and the country’s social life. At the same time, it created a nationwide programme in Catalan, Andorra’s only official language. This was also relevant because numerous broadcasting services from neighbouring France and Spain can be received in the small territory.

The present-day broadcasting company Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra, abbreviated to RTVA, is organised as a public company. Its services include the national radio station and Andorran television; digital news and on-demand services have also been added. The anniversary presented a suitable occasion for a coin because public broadcasting is associated both with the country’s institutional modernisation and with an independent Andorran public sphere in the Catalan language.