The Pope's Television Center - Vatican Media - Celebrates 35th Anniversary

Every day, the CTV films the pope’s public appearances and the main events having to do with the Apostolic See. The images are then distributed to the agencies and television channels that ask for them.

The CTV also preserves the archives for all the images since the 1980’s. “We have chosen a digital archive system with a 100-year warrantee on the material,” explained Stefano D’Agostini, coordinator of the department of audio-visual productions for the Dicastery for Communication. 

Renzo Alocci, technical director of the video production sector of the Dicastery for Communication, tells what a turning point the conclave that elected Benedict XVI was for the CTV:

For the first time in the history of the Vatican, a Vatican TV agency acted as a host organism for all the images taken on its territory. This means that it was the only agency authorized to film the entire transition phase between the two popes and to distribute then document and publish the images for all the other broadcasters throughout the world.

Pope Francis reformed the CTV, creating the Dicastery for Communication in June 2015. This dicastery is made up of nine Vatican communication and information organisms: the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Internet Service, Vatican Radio, the CTV, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Typography Office, the Photographic Service, and the Vatican Publishing House (LEV).