TVR Cultural (Romanian pronunciation:[ˌtevereˌkultuˈral]) is the cultural channel of Romania's government-funded television network Televiziunea Română (TVR). It provides cultural news, documentaries about the arts, as well as various shows, musicals and theatrical pieces. It was closed in September 2012 and restarted in December 2022.
History
TVR Cultural began transmission in 2002. It was modelled on the Franco-German TV channel Arte and other European channels focused on cultural and artistic programming.[citation needed]
TVR Cultural started rebroadcasting again in 2022, ten years after its closure, following an internal vote within TVR.[7] On 7 September 2022, Romania's National Audiovisual Council granted a license to restart broadcasting.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2022, to coincide with Romania's National Day, TVR Cultural relaunched its broadcasts with the stated aim of "[creating] bridges between tradition and modernity, between conservatism and progressivism, between rural and urban, between peripheral and central."[8] The first day of broadcasts included debates on cultural topics, interviews with Romanian cultural figures – including director Daniel Jiga of the Romanian National Opera – as well as rebroadcast of a 1978 staging of Victor Ion Popa's play "Take, Ianke and Cadîr".[8]
Under new TVR president Dan-Cristian Turturică, the relaunched TVR Cultural aims to bring focus to young artists from Romania and Moldova to showcase minority cultures in Romania, to document the state of culture during Romania's communist period and rebroadcast archival programming alongside new concerts, plays, as well as other cultural events. Its regular segment, "Jurnal Cultural", is hosted by Bogdan Stănescu and covers current affairs in the field of arts and culture in Romania as well as abroad.[8]
