Origins The network's origins dates back to the 1960s when an educational television pilot project, which would later become TV Pendidikan, started on 8 June 1965 and lasted for two weeks. The theme of the pilot project was "The Air Around Us", aimed at Science students and was presented in Malay and later repeated in English.
As TV Pendidikan (1972–2008) TV Pendidikan was officially launched on 19 June 1972 by the Second
Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Abdul Razak Hussein. It was later expanded to Sabah and Sarawak on 30 August 1976 and began colour broadcasts in 1979. In 1994, the Ministry of Information proposed that TV Pendidikan will become a standalone channel instead of programming block, which was later scrapped. In April 1998, the then-Information Minister, the late
Mohamed Rahmat announced the privatization of the network, where it planned to start in 1999 and only air for an hour. A study for its privatisation was being made. Plans for privatisation began as early as 1992, and "would have its own station". However, the plan for privatize the network did not materialized as TV Pendidikan is still owned by the Government. From 3 January 2007 until 31 December 2008, TV Pendidikan was aired on Malaysia's terrestrial channel,
TV9. Previously, TV Pendidikan was aired through satellite pay-TV operator
Astro's Channel 28 (2000–2001) and Channel 13 (2002–2006), and Malaysia's terrestrial television channels
TV1 and
TV2 from 1972 to 1999 respectively. In October 2018, the-then Education Minister,
Maszlee Malik announced the relaunch of TV Pendidikan while stating that the Ministry of Education developing its own content. TV Pendidikan was relaunched on 6 April 2020 after 12 years of absence and began airing on
OKEY, one of
RTM’s channels. The network made its comeback on RTM after two decades since its last broadcasting in 1999. As of 4 May 2020, The network also made its comeback on Astro since its last broadcasting in 2006 via Astro Tutor TV. After nearly 13 years of the network's presence on
TV9 since it last aired in 2008, TV Pendidikan was also made its debut through
ntv7 under the name
DidikTV@ntv7 on 23 November 2020. Currently, the programming slot broadcasts daily from 9am to 12pm and 3pm to 5pm.
As DidikTV KPM (2021–present) TV Pendidikan has made a comeback on
Media Prima, a decade since it last aired on
TV9 in 2008. Its new home,
ntv7, broadcasts a program slot known as
DidikTV@ntv7 and in conjunction with the Movement Control Order (MCO) that has been set by
Malaysian government on 18 March 2020. The Ministry discussions were underway with Media Prima on plans to continue the slot in 2021. On 12 February 2021, the
Ministry of Education announced that ntv7 would be refocused as an educational TV channel known as
DidikTV KPM for one year starting 17 February 2021. The channel features educational content based on SPM curriculum and co-curriculum. It also provides news focusing on education, edutainment shows, and content produced by the students, as well as relevant international programming. The channel has 17 hours of airtime and runs daily from 7am to 12am. == Operations ==