Taiwan Television

Taiwan Television Enterprise, Ltd., commonly known as TTV, was the first television station in Taiwan. It was established on April 28, 1962, and began broadcasting on October 10, 1962, as a free-to-air channel. During its early years, TTV created many popular and new kinds of television shows.

In recent years, TTV has become popular again after working with Sanlih E-Television to show their shows. TTV's dramas about pop idols often get many viewers, although sometimes fewer people watch depending on the story or actors.

After new media rules were made, TTV was planned to become a private company in 2007. Now, a financial television network called Unique Satellite TV owns most of TTV.

Since it started, TTV has done many important things that helped television in Taiwan grow. It made the first Taiwanese-language television show and the first Mandarin-language drama series. Its first costume drama, Cheng Ch'eng-kung, aired in 1963. In July 1969, TTV showed the Apollo 11 Moon landing live, one of its last shows in black and white before it started showing shows in color on September 7, 1969.

Appearances

TTV has had many different logos since it started in 1962. The first logo showed the letters "TTV" with the two Ts connected by a lightning bolt shape and a small "V" below, on a blue, green, and red background. This logo was used until 1990. In 1990, a new circular logo was introduced, featuring a triangle that looked like a satellite dish. This logo was used until July 2008, when it was changed again to a similar design but with the triangle moved higher up.

TTV uses a special test card pattern called the PM5544 for checking its broadcasts.

Channels

Taiwan Television, often called TTV, has several channels. These include the TTV Main Channel, TTV News Channel, and TTV Finance. There is also TTV Variety, which used to be known as TTV Family. Another channel, TTV World, is no longer running, and its shows were sold to other broadcasters.

The TTV shows

TTV had many popular shows in the past. TTV Mandarin Novels was one of the first Mandarin dramas, broadcast in the 1960s. It helped start the tradition of evening dramas shown at 8 p.m. today.

Star Showcase was an early variety show that aired for 15 years, from 1962 to 1977. The show came back in the 1990s and again in 2002, but each time for less than six months. Another long-running show was the Pentalight Talent Show, which aired for 33 years from 1965 to 1998. Many famous singers got their start on this show.

There were also cooking shows, like Fu Pei-mei’s Chinese Cooking Show, hosted by Fu Pei-mei. It ran for 40 years, from 1962 to 2002. One of TTV’s most famous shows was Taiwanese Opera, starring Yang Li-hua. It aired from 1962 to 1975 and then again from 1979 to 1994. In 1994, the show aired The Goddess of the Luo River, which was the first Taiwanese opera to be shown at 8 p.m. The final show, Ode to Its Successor, won an award at the 2004 Golden Bell Awards.