What is the First Channel of Armenia?
The First Channel is the flagship television service published at 1tv.am. Media Ownership Monitor Armenia records that “the First Channel is a program of Public Television of Armenia CJSC” and that “the company's 100% shares are owned by the Republic of Armenia.”[1]
The instrument is named in the same profile: “according to the Law of the Republic of Armenia On Audiovisual Media, the Public Broadcaster is defined as a broadcaster that is 100% owned by the Republic of Armenia.”[1] The profile records that the channel “operates under the supervision of the Public Broadcaster's Council (PBC), the authorized body responsible for managing and overseeing public broadcasters”.[1]
The broadcaster's own schedule page lists the channels H1, H1 Lurer, H1 America and H1 Global.[3] Media Ownership Monitor Armenia's 2025 study, by the Global Media Registry with Hetq, covered ten television companies among the 42 outlets it profiled.[6]
What does the First Channel of Armenia cover?
The broadcaster's output is general. On sport, its own programme page describes Our Football as a series “about the nine clubs playing in the Armenian Premier League”, with each part dedicated to one club and its history and achievements; the episodes listed on that page run from May to July 2020.[2]
Current carriage is thinner than that page implies. The schedule published on the broadcaster's own site for 23 September 2026 lists the four channels above and carries no sport on that day.[3] Live rights to the domestic league sit elsewhere on the retrieved record: Armenpress reported on 7 August 2026 that the Football Federation of Armenia had agreed a partnership under which Armenian Premier League matches would be broadcast by Free News TV, and quoted the federation saying that “negotiations are ongoing to also broadcast Armenian Premier League matches on a television channel with nationwide coverage.”[5]
How large is the First Channel of Armenia's audience?
No audited audience figure could be retrieved, and none is given here. Media Ownership Monitor Armenia's profile of the outlet records missing data for audience share, revenue, operating profit, advertising funding percentage and market share.[1]
The gap is market-wide and documented. The monitor states that “Armenia's television industry has operated without reliable audience gauging for nearly a decade, creating a crisis that affects millions of dollars in advertising revenue”, names Admospher-Armenia LLC — founded in 2015 and working with the Czech firm Nielsen Admosphere — as the provider that filled the gap, and records that on 7 August 2025 the Media Industrial Committee and Inditronics Media Private Limited signed a memorandum of cooperation on television audience measurement.[4]
On published press-freedom context, Reporters Without Borders placed Armenia 50th of 180 in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index with an overall score of 67.02, and writes that “most broadcast and print media, affiliated with major political and commercial interests, continue to face pressure concerning their editorial policy.”[7] That is RSF's statement about the country. Media Ownership Monitor Armenia's own commentary on this outlet records active transparency in ownership disclosure alongside concerns about editorial balance.[1]
Since when has the First Channel of Armenia existed?
Media Ownership Monitor Armenia dates the start of Armenian television, rather than of this channel under its present name, and does so precisely: “on November 29, 1956, coinciding with the anniversary of Armenia's Sovietization, Armenian television broadcast for the first time.”[1] Founded, recognised and renamed are different dates and only the first is given by that source.
The current corporate position is dated by the same profile: the operating company is Public Television of Armenia CJSC, wholly owned by the Republic of Armenia, and in 2022 Public TV acquired a 50 per cent stake in the advertising sales agency Mediahouse Armenia.[1][4] The programme page for Our Football is dated by its episode listings of May to July 2020.[2]
Why does the First Channel of Armenia matter in Armenia's sport?
Its place on this list is structural rather than measured: it is the broadcaster the state wholly owns, under a named statute and a named supervisory council, in a market where no audited audience currency has been available for years.[1][4]
On the retrieved record its sport output is a club-by-club documentary series rather than live league coverage, and the domestic league's broadcast partnership announced on 7 August 2026 named a different channel.[2][5] Broadcast arrangements go stale quickly and both statements are anchored to those dates.
Its ownership is also the reason its position is checkable: the shareholding, the instrument and the council are all stated by a named monitoring body rather than inferred.[1]
References
- Media Ownership Monitor Armenia — First Channel of Armenia outlet profile (Public Television of Armenia CJSC; 100% state-owned; Law On Audiovisual Media; Public Broadcaster's Council). Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Public Television of Armenia — programme page for Our Football. Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Public Television of Armenia — programme schedule (channels H1, H1 Lurer, H1 America, H1 Global). Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Media Ownership Monitor Armenia — findings: lack of audience data, Admospher-Armenia, Inditronics memorandum of 7 August 2025, Mediahouse Armenia stake. Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Armenpress — Armenian Premier League matches to air on Free News TV under new FFA partnership, 7 August 2026. Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Media Ownership Monitor Armenia — media database overview (42 outlets, ten television companies). Accessed 2026-09-23.
- Reporters Without Borders — Armenia country entry, 2026 World Press Freedom Index. Accessed 2026-09-23.