NTV7

The Sarawak company Nasional Televisyen (NTV), from Kuching, was given the green light from the Malaysian government on 5 June 1996. Under the conditions, the station would broadcast nationwide, 18 hours a day in various languages, with a minimum quota of 60% for national content. The station was owned by Mohd Effendi Norwawi's company Kenyalang Jasa Sdn Bhd.[2]

The channel was launched on 7 April 1998 under the entity of Natseven TV Sdn Bhd by businessman Mohd Effendi Norwawi, broadcasting daily from 6 am to 1 am the next day. At the time of its establishment, its headquarters was located at Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park in Shah Alam, Selangor. It also had a studio in Kuching, Sarawak.[3] Its first day started with the then-prime minister attending a prayer service for Eid ul-Adha prayers at a mosque in the state of Kedah. NTV7 at launch employed a staff of 250 people, with broadcast centres at Shah Alam in Selangor and had a transmitting network of ten stations, reaching peninsular Malaysia and the cities of Kuching in Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. There were already plans outlined for the station to go national "within a year". The slogan "Feel Good with NTV7" had the aim of creating "a happy and more enlightened" Malaysia.[4] For years, the channel started and ended with the James Brown song I Feel Good, which became a part of NTV7's branding.

In 2001, NTV7 began using a variation of the Circle 7 logo used by the American broadcast network ABC for its several owned-and-operated and affiliated stations; the logo would stay in use until 2018.

On 19 January 2003, NTV7 aired a special tribute to the nation's longest serving Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad at 8pm.[5]

In 2005, Media Prima Berhad announced its acquisition of NTV7 under a price of RM90 million, effectively making the latter one of its subsidiaries. As a result, it operates from Sri Pentas, Petaling Jaya from that year onward along with three other private television channels in Malaysia: TV3, 8TV and TV9.[6]

In its early history, the channel offered a wide variety of programming which targets the Malaysian urban demographic including drama, comedy, entertainment, game shows, children's programmes, anime, documentaries and movies. There were also news bulletins in English, Mandarin and Malay through the 7 Edition, Mandarin 7, and Edisi 7 brands, respectively.

On 1 April 2016, a teleshopping block bought by the Korean conglomerate CJ Group through subsidiary CJ E&M Co Ltd called CJ WOW Shop (now Wow Shop) was broadcasting across Media Prima channels. Several Media Prima channels (especially NTV7 and TV9) were more affected by the changes. It attracted public criticism on social media as a large part of the daytime schedule was replaced by the block, in which these slots had been previously dedicated to reruns, religious programming and kids programming.[7]

On 1 November 2020, CJ Wow Shop was rebranded into Wow Shop after Media Prima bought the remaining 49% stake in the teleshopping network previously held by CJ Group.[8]

From 5 March 2018, Media Prima attempted a new brand positioning for NTV7. The channel tried to target "Modern Malaysia" as a contemporary station through its new content line-up, including new Turkish Telenovelas; as well as its new slogan Feel It.[9][10][11][12][13] The relaunch saw major changes as it became a dominated English-Malay language channel, with the channel name read as "n-t-v-tujuh" instead of "n-t-v-seven." Also, infomercial programming was reduced upon the channel's rebranding.

Upon the March 2018 rebranding, Chinese content on this channel was reduced to selected Chinese dramas from Hong Kong and China along with Mandarin news bulletins, with much of the remainder transferred to sister channel 8TV (which also attempted to reposition as Media Prima's sole all-Chinese channel on the same day). Originally, Mandarin 7 was supposed to be cancelled in May 2018 to complete its plan of moving all Chinese content to a single dedicated channel. However, when the 2018 General Election occurred, the bulletin became Malaysia's second-most watched after TV3's Buletin Utama (the said spot was formerly held by Berita TV9). Due to the Chinese community's positive response, Media Prima decided to reshuffle NTV7's news programming in June instead of axing Chinese news. In this format, only one news bulletin per language was aired on the channel with a single Mandarin newshour, while retaining half-hour editions in Malay and English.

The rebrand caused confusion among viewers, particularly Chinese communities who tuned in to NTV7 after finding out that most of its former programmes were moved to 8TV. Overall Chinese viewership was believed to be surprisingly lower.

As a result, on 31 December 2018, the former CEO of Media Prima Television Networks, Johan Ishak, said that the Mandarin variant of CJ Wow Shop would be broadcast on the channel and replace the Malay variant.[14] The move was part of the company's restructuring NTV7 by axed English and Malay-language shows, dropped the channel nomenclature, moved some (including those from TV9) to the main TV3. It also brought back the channel's perception as a Chinese channel; yet the channel's Mandarin, Malay and English news bulletins remained unchanged.

Reruns of axed NTV7 shows were then aired on TV9 after the former's retreat while slogan "Feel it" was removed.

On 7 June 2020, Mandarin 7 aired its final edition and was merged into 8TV Mandarin News the following day. 8TV Mandarin News was also extended to one hour due to high ratings during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia.[15]

On 1 November 2020, CEO of Media Prima Television Networks, Dato' Khairul Anwar Salleh announced that NTV7 would be targeted for ages 15–28 by focusing on magazines, information and current affairs programs to meet the public needs, while Korean dramas would stop airing and all Chinese programmes have finally been integrated to 8TV. Korean variety show Running Man remains on this channel along with homeshopping block Wow Shop.[16]

On 18 November 2020, DidikTV@ntv7, an educational programming block was introduced by Ministry of Education from 23 November 2020 until 16 January 2021. It formerly ran from 9 am to 12 pm every Monday to Friday.[17] It was later split into two timeslots (9 am – 12 pm and 3 pm – 5 pm) on 27 January 2021, resulting the educational programming to be aired daily.[18]

On 12 February 2021, as the Ministry of Education will have a one-year term with Media Prima,[19] it was announced that NTV7 will be rebranded through a takeover as a fully educational TV channel known as DidikTV KPM starting 17 February; the new channel will focus on educational content based on SPM curriculum and co-curriculum. It would also provide news focused on education, edutainment programs, and content produced by the students. The channel will have 17 hours of airtime and will run daily from 7 am to 12 am.[20]

On 16 February 2021, Media Prima confirmed to The Edge Markets that ntv7 will not be defunct, while the current team will be focusing on DidikTV KPM.[21]

Since the DidikTV KPM launch, the main newscasts Edisi 7 was ceased entirely in replacement with Buletin Didik while 7 Edition moved to digital platforms; though it was later discontinued in May due to DidikTV KPM slot. Homeshopping block Wow Shop was ceased from airing on the channel. Soal Drama and Running Man were transferred to TV9 since 21 February 2021. Some of the original programming such as Trio On Point, Topik@7 (now Topik), Breakfast@9PM, Kail X and Jurnal Resipi will continue to air.

During the DidikTV@7 segment, the channel airs documentary, drama (weekends only), lifestyle, and cartoon programmes.[22] Only certain programmes broadcast in Chinese language such as Let's Cycle (season 1) hosted by Rickman Chia and Baki Zainal.

From 15 to 30 September 2021, according to the viewership statistics from Media Prima Omnia, the viewership share for NTV7 has increased from 2% to 15%, making the channel become the second most-watched television station in Malaysia after TV3 (which the viewership share for TV3 is about 17%), together with TV9, which has the same viewership share of 15%.[23][24]