Establishment and early broadcast Trans7 was established as
TV7 based on issuance of a permit by Department of Trade and Industry in Central Jakarta (No. 809/BH.09.05/III/2000). 80% of its share is largely owned by
Kompas Gramedia Group. It was initially named
Duta Visual Nusantara TV (DVN TV), where the permission was issued on 25 October 1999, based on the Regulation of the Minister of Information (
Peraturan Menteri Penerangan,
Permenpen) No.797/MP/1999. The network was owned by H. Sukoyo, a
shrimp pond entrepreneur from
East Java, and three other parties which were his
Starpage pager business partner. He decided to sell his TV network's establishment permission to Kompas Gramedia. The share purchase of DVN TV was considered as the realization of Kompas Gramedia's intend to be involved in the television industry. In October 2001, TV7 was planned to start its broadcast, with full broadcast beginning in March 2002. However, on 25 November 2001, TV7 was launched in State Gazette No. 8687 as
PT Duta Visual Nusantara Tivi Tujuh (TV7). At the time, the broadcast only covers
Greater Jakarta area, with 49
UHF channel, with 5-hour broadcasting time from 17:00-22:00
WIB. The logo itself is the letters "JO", which stands for
Jakob Oetama (1931-2020), the co-founder of Kompas Gramedia Group. The logo is also loosely based on the
Circle 7 logo that is used by the American broadcast network
ABC for its several
owned-and-operated and
affiliated stations. On 7 April 2002, TV7 was officially on-air, with the broadcasting time extended into 22 hours (04:30-02:30 WIB) in 2003. The broadcast coverage was later extended to
Surakarta and
Surabaya. TV7 has 300 employees as of 2003. The early programming itself were entertainment-based but inclined with local materials and with an explorative theme, such as '''' which still broadcasts today. Nevertheless, TV7's program rating was considered not too well, which led to a report that the network was offered to be bought by
Surya Citra Media (SCM)—parent company of
SCTV—in July 2003 on the grounds of financial problems, but eventually never happened.
Iraq invasion coverage In the first quarter of 2003, TV7 aired daily relays of
Al Jazeera during the
U.S. invasion of Iraq through a news program titled
Invasi ke Irak (Invasion to Iraq). In response, rival broadcaster
ANTV started relaying
Al Arabiya's coverage of the invasion.
Re-launch as Trans7 On 4 August 2006,
CT Corp (then Para Group) via Trans Corp authorized to buy a 55% stake in PT Duta Visual Nusantara Tivi Tujuh (as it noted in the book titled
Chairul Tanjung si Anak Singkong;
lit.: Chairul Tanjung the Cassava Boy). In conjunction with
Trans TV's 5th anniversary on 15 December 2006 at 19:00
local time, the channel was rebranded as
Trans7, making it the second CT Corp owned television network. With the buyout and relaunch, the network moved its office to Trans TV's building. For the first time, Trans7 became the official broadcaster of the
2018 FIFA World Cup along with the sister channel Trans TV, also with
Telkom Indonesia, K-Vision and
MNC Vision. Trans7 had broadcast 8 group-stage matches as well as shared broadcasting of quarterfinal, semifinal, 3rd place playoff, and final matches from Trans TV, also from UseeTV (now
IndiHome TV), K-Vision, and MNC Sports. Since 2 November 2022, Trans7 was terminated and stopped Analog transmission operation from Jakarta and its surrounding areas and switched over to digital transmission by Trans TV Jakarta operation during Modi countdown to midnight special coverage. In December 2022–July 2023, Trans7 terminated all Analog transmission by a mandate from the
Ministry of Communications and Informatics about ASO delay since 2022. In October 2025, a broadcast of the channel's "Xpose Uncensored" program which documented
pesantren and accused the Islamic boarding schools of feudal and slavery-like practices, was the source of public controversy, being criticized by Islamic organizations and politicians and with the hashtag "#BoycottTrans7" trending on
X (Twitter). == Programming ==