History
With the growing Russification of Belarus, more Belarusian-language programming gradually moved from the First Channel to its second network Lad, which, at launch in 2003, provided a limited amount of Belarusian programming.
Belarus-3 was announced by BTRC in February 2012; the initial goal was to test the channel in March.
The channel started broadcasting on 7:50a.m. on 8 February 2013 airing the ATN (Agency for Televisio News, a BTRC unit) documentary Horackija pacechi from the Zjamlja belaruskaja cycle. Most programs were cultural in nature; Kalyhanka, formerly of Belarus-1, moved to this channel as a result of its launch and expanded from five nights a week to seven. As of 2018, Belarusian-language programming accounted for 32% of the weekly total, an average of over five hours a day.
What set Belarus-3 apart from the other BTRC channels was the fact that it became the first digital-only channel to be launched by the corporation. At the time of launching, 96% of Belarusians were within the reach of the digital terrestrial platform (moreover, Belarus was in a transitional phase to digital). In 2017, the channel adopted a new graphics package and, in early 2018, in a special program for its fifth anniversary, announced that it would start broadcasting in HD soon.
In September 2020, an episode of Kalyhanka featured a story about a bear (Top) who deposed a fox (Yana) from the throne. Local bloggers considered it to be a satire of how Alexander Lukashenko got into power.
As of January 2023, nearly 850,000 viewers watched the channel daily.
