Nepal Television

Engineering Division has always laid emphasis in the improvement of transmission and maintenance of its equipment, The planning for this has to be done effectively and well in advance as there is a lack of company back up facilities and required spare parts in the local market.

The Engineering Division has at present three sections consisting of operation (transmission studio) section, maintenance & transmission section and programme-production studio section. The Division is responsible for the operation of its terrestrial network and all the regional transmitting stations, It also looks after the network expansion planning and frequency planning. Much of the credit for NTV's success goes to the technical manpower of this division which has been able to forge ahead with very little foreign technical assistance.

In the media history of Nepal, NTV has maintained a steady pace in its network development, Since the last twelve years its audience has grown from 2000 viewers in the capital, Kathmandu, to approximately 2,5 million viewers across the country spread mostly in the southern plains and the urban areas. The biggest drawback for NTV to have its signals reach to as many people as possible has been the difficult terrain of the country, 75% of whose land area consists of hills and mountains extending from east to west, The remaining 25 % of the land area in the south bordering India is the only stretch which is easily accessible to all kinds of communication.

Now, twelve years later, NTV has 10 transmitting stations and sub-stations linked by off air reception at different strategic points on top of hills and mountains in different parts of the country, The central transmitter in Kathmandu is located atop the highest mountain, Phulchoki (9,075 feet), It is linked to the master control room via micro-wave, The transmitting tower is further 300 feet in height. The signals from this transmitter is then picked by off air antennas of different rebroadcasting stations at different parts of the country, In this way, NTV's transmission which was available only to the capital in the beginning now reaches 42% of the total population, However the total number of viewers is far less due to the unavailability of electricity. Only 15% of the total population of the country have access to electricity.

Currently there are three studios. Two of them are located at the central station in Kathmandu; one is the transmission studio, and located next to it is the production studio for the central region, The third one, which is located in the western region at Kohalpur, is used for producing programmes which reflect the society, culture and tradition of that region, Similar production studio is to be set up in the eastern region with the same objective in the near future.

S.N.	Transmitting Station	Transmitter Brand	Power	Channel	Vision	Audio Carrier Frequency	Remarks Carrier Frequency
1.	Phulchoki	Larcan	5 kW	5	175.25 MHz	180.75 MHz	Mother Station
2.	Jaleswor	Thomson	2 KW	11	217.25 MHz	222.75 MHz	Receive Phulchowki
3.	Namje	Thomson	2 KW	5+(Off-set)	175.25 MHz	180.75 MHz	Receive Jaleswor
4.	Ilam	Larcan	5 KW	12	224.25 MHz	229.75 MHz	Receive Namje
5.	Daunne	Thomson	500 W	12	224.25 MHz	229.75 MHz	Receive Phulchowki
6.	Sarangkot	Thomson	200 W	7	189.25 MHz	194.75 MHz	Receive Phulchowki
7.	Tansen (Palpa)	Thomson	200 W	5	175.25 MHz	180.75 MHz	Receive Sarankot
8.	Chamere Danda	Thomson	1 KW	5	175.25 MHz	180.75 MHz	Not Connected to National Network of Phulchowki
1.	Hetaunda	TTC	100 W	4	62.25 MHz	67.75 MHz	Receive Phulchowki
2.	Butwal	NEC	10 W	7	189.25 MHz	194.75 MHz	Receive Daunne