National Iranian Radio and Television
Iran's first radio/television network which operated from 1966 to 1979
National Iranian Radio and Television (NIRT; Persian: سازمان رادیو تلویزیون ملی ایران, Sâzmân-e Râdyo Televizyon-e Melli-ye 'Irân) was the first Iranian state broadcaster, which was established on June 19, 1971, following the merger of the country's radio and television services. It operated up until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, after which NIRT became the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
Background and history
Introduction of television
Television was first introduced in Iran on October 3, 1958, by Television Iran (TVI). A privately owned and commercially operated monopoly, TVI carried Western programming dubbed in Persian. Following the opening of its station in Tehran, it established a station in Abadan on February 28, 1960.
This was followed by National Iranian Television (NITV) in 1966. Earlier that year, the Plan and Budget Organization allocated a budget for the project, and the Ministry of Economics donated land. A temporary structure was built, and on October 26, NITV transmitted its first broadcast message, a statement by the Shah. Test programs were run, and complete programming commenced at Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in March 1967. The first week’s programs included the broadcasting of the Shah’s birthday celebrations from Amjadieh Stadium.
“National Iranian Radio and Television” enters the record as iran's first radio/television network which operated from 1966 to 1979. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what National, Iranian and Radio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“National Iranian Radio and Television” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, National, Iranian and Radio provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3416942. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1979, 1958 and 1960.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Iranian Radio and Television” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.