NTV (Cowellan TV Station)

NTV (also known as National Television) is a Cowellan commercial television network based in Emerald City, Cowell. It is owned by National Media Group.

## History

### Launch and early years: 1925-1962

NTV got its roots in 1925, when former EBN, Inc. CEO, Paul Creswell and former Cowell CEO Tara Matsushita of the Hung family formed Nation Radio after the Cowellan government acquired CTC, which was at bankruptcy at the time in 1925. It acquired broadcaster North Tower Broadcasting, which consists of many circuits, and film distributor/producer Gaumont. In early 1928, it was announced that **North Tower Broadcasting** will convert from a TV station circuit to a TV networkand it will be renamed to **NTV**. Several North Tower stations were handed over to NTV on November 13, 1928.

NTV opened transmission on November 23, 1928, at 5:30 pm with an authority announcement by Jules Durham followed by the introduction continuity with Paul Friswell and an extended 10-minute promo entitled *This is NTV*.

During its first year, NTV usually aired news and documentaries.

NTV has been airing anime, cartoons, and pre-school shows since November 1931 starting with *Looney Tunes*.

### Success in television: 1962-1975

In 1961, the station was branded as Cowell Communist Government Television. It started to broadcast news and current affairs. Its callsign was changed again to CD-CTGK on September 20, 1967. It launched its first relay station in Sapphire Bay, the capital of the Sapphire Bay Province, which would later be an EBN-affiliate.

### New decades: 1975-2005

On April 10, 1975, the channel started to broadcast in colour. It expanded its broadcast time from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm and started regular daily broadcasts. It mostly aired foreign programming with live parliament telecasts.

In 1989, NTV won the rights to air the US CBS comedy *Murphy Brown*, and it successfully became the Cowellian leaders in comedy television. The success leads up to NTV having broadcasting rights of *Wings*, *Frasier*, *Friends*, *Sabrina, the Teenage Witch*, *That '70s Show* and *Malcolm in the Middle*. It also acquired the rights to air *Hockey Night in Canada*, which NTV being able to air under its original name.

In 1990, NTV began broadcasting in stereophonic sound using the A2 Stereo system.

In 1995, NTV won the right for Cowell for the broadcasting rights of *Caroline in the City*, while cable rights went to Star TV.

In 1996, NTV signed a partnership deal with CTC, which caused NTV to strip its 15-year partnership deal with EBN and Cowell to strip its partnership deal with EBN. Despite the end of the partnership deal between CTC and EBN, two networks continue to work with RGN at times.

On April 27, 1998, NTV as officially launched on digital television after it test trials for 5 years, which changed its aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen format, also the HD transmission was launched, making the first Cowellan free-to-air TV channel to have a widescreen format. The channel was letterboxed for analog televisions.

On January 14, 2000, National Media Group was granted the rights to air Happy Tree Friends on the network, debuting the show on Cowellan television. However, as with when NTV premiered South Park, the show became controversial airing on the network, but thankfully, ratings did not decreas. Concerned parents called and sent mail to NTV's headquarters regarding the network airing the show, demanding that they either take the show down or move it to another network. However, NTV kept on airing the show until 2009, a year after a protest group consisting of concerned attacked their headquarters, NTV sold the rights to Happy Tree Friends over to CTC, where the show now broadcasts on CTC3. Since then, Happy Tree Friends has been the last show on NTV that was rated NSD.

On August 9, 2004, NTV was officially launched on digital television after it test trials for 5 years, which changed its aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen format, also the HD transmission was launched, making the first Cowellan free-to-air TV channel to have a widescreen format. The channel was letterboxed for analog televisions.

2005 was the year that the widely popular "We've Got it all on NTV" jingle made its debut.

### New generation: 2005-present

On 10 July 2005, a high-definition of the channel was launched on digital terrestrial, cable, and satellite television providers.

On 30 September 2005 at midnight CTT, NTV ended its analog transmissions after the airing of One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island on Star Movies on NTV, the Japanese feed closed down its analog transmissions 3 years earlier and using its interruption and analog switch-over message, and a classic sign off (which is actually 1945-1972 sign off but, it's 1945 version and only started at the NTV ident).

In January 2014, following the premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode Rainbow Falls, NTV added new idents with creative idents like for Arts and more.

## Broadcasting Areas

* November 23, 1928: 5:30 pm to 12:00 am
* November 24, 1928-1940: 5:30 am to 12:00 am
* 1940-1965: 6:00 am to 11:00 pm
* 1965-2005: 5:50 am to 12:00 am
* 1999-present: 24 hours

## Current programs

### News and information

* NTV Eyewitness News (1928-present)
* NTV News Inside (1934-present)
* Right to Reply (1971-present)
* NTV Affair (1963-present)

### Local programs

#### Soap operas

* The Beauty and Her Babe (1980-present)
* The Misty’s Life (2018-present)
* The Write (1975-present)

#### Entertainment

* Seinfeld (1989-present)
* Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-present)
* Friends (1995-present)

#### Movies

* NTV Cinemas (1971-present)
* Blockbuster NTV (2005-present)

#### Movies by international rights

* Columbia Pictures
* TriStar Pictures
* Warner Bros. Pictures
* New Line Cinema
* Brampton Bryan Films Limited

### Foreign programs

#### Soap operas

* Eastenders (UK) (1985-present)
* Neighbours (AUS) (1986-present)

#### Anime and Animated

* The Simpsons (USA) (1990-2016; 2020-present) (also aired on CTC Kids and CTC Three)
* South Park (USA) (1997-present)
* Family Guy (USA) (1999-present)

#### Children's

* Looney Tunes (USA) (1931-present)
* My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (2020-present)
* *The Smurfs* (2021 TV series) (USA/BE) (2021-present)

## Former programs

### Local programs

#### Comedy

* Great Job! The Amazing Alex and Mack Show! (1995-2008, 2015-present)
* 4ward (2007-2008)
* Sweet Sow (1966-2006)

#### Soap operas

* Flaky (1971-1980) (replaced with The Beauty and Her Babe)
* Water Boys (1947-1977)
* Childish (1963-1990)
* Young Hearts (1952-2006)

#### Children's

* The Wiggles Experience (TV Series) (1980-2002) (moved to CTC Kids)
* Daisy! (2006-2009)

### Foreign programs

#### Comedy

* Caroline in the City (USA) (1996-1999)
* Kirk (USA) (1996-1997)
* Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (USA) (1997-2003)
* Murphy Brown (USA) (1989-1999, 2018-2019)
* Father Ted (UK/IRE) (1995-1998)
* Will & Grace (USA) (1998-2006, 2017-2020)

#### Children's

* The Magic Garden (USA) (1974-1989)
* The Hoobs (UK/CAN) (2002-2006)
* Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (AUS) (1968-1977)
* My Little Pony (USA) (1986-1991)
* My Little Pony Tales (USA) (1992-1995)
* My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (CAN/USA) (2010-2020)
* My Little Pony: Pony Life (USA/IE) (2020-2021)
* Johnson and Friends (AUS) (1991-2001)
* Inspector Gadget (1983) (1983-1994)
* Inspector Gadget (2015) (2015-2020)
* *The Smurfs* (1961 TV series) (BE) (1961-1970)
* *The Smurfs* (1981 TV series) (USA/BE) (1981-1994)
* Jackanory (UK) (1965-2005)

#### Music

* Soul Train (USA) (1971-2006)
* 120 Minutes (USA) (1986-2011)
* CD:UK (UK) (1998-2006)