About GTV

GTV

GTV is an Indonesian free-to-air private television network owned by Media Nusantara Citra, the MNC group, which also owns RCTI, MNCTV and iNews. Operating as PT Global Informasi Bermutu, GTV is the initialism of its previous name, Global TV, which it used from its launch until 2017. Headquartered at MNC Studios in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, with news studios at the iNews Center in Central Jakarta, it broadcasts nationwide in Indonesian in 1080i high definition. GTV began as the Indonesian home of MTV, broadcasting music television around the clock, and has since shifted to general entertainment aimed at young adults and families, with a schedule of news, soap operas, reality and game shows, sport, Nickelodeon animation and anime.

An Islamic broadcasting project that changed hands

Global TV was originally established on 22 March 1999 as a joint venture of ICMI, the formerly government-backed Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals, and the International Islamic Forum for Science, Technology and Human Resource Development, under the name Global IIFTIHAR Broadcasting and the company name PT Global Investasi Bermutu. The network was intended for Islamic dawah preaching, together with education, technology, news, sports and human development programming, and was designed to be the first Islamic-oriented television service of its kind in Indonesia. It obtained a broadcast licence on 25 October 1999 during the administration of President Habibie. The project did not reach the air in that form. In 2001 Bimantara Citra acquired Global TV through its subsidiary PT Panca Andika Mandiri, later renamed MNC Media, changed the company name to PT Global Informasi Bermutu, and made the channel the new sister network of RCTI, replacing SCTV in that role.

Trial broadcasts and the MTV partnership

Global TV began its trial broadcast on 8 October 2001 in Jakarta, airing foreign music videos presented by Dewi Rezer. On 7 March 2002 Global TV and MTV Asia began a partnership to broadcast MTV Indonesia, which had previously aired on ANTV before stopping during the financial crisis. MTV programmes officially started on Global TV on 1 April 2002, including MTV Land, MTV Most Wanted, MTV Alternative Nation, MTV WOW, MTV Classic, MTV Asia Hitlist and MTV Ampuh. In that period the channel used the TVG name in its logo. MTV was officially launched on the channel on 1 May 2002 while it was still in trial broadcast. In August 2002 Global TV expanded to five cities, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Palembang, with fifteen hours of transmission a day, extended to seventeen hours on 1 October 2002.

Official launch as a 24-hour music channel

On 8 October 2002 Global TV officially launched as a music television channel for Indonesia and Asia, as the MTV broadcaster, beginning 24-hour transmission with music and programmes from Indonesia, Asia and the United States. It became the world's first free-to-air television channel to air MTV for 24 hours non-stop, and the first and only music television channel in Indonesia. Its main target audience was teenagers, summed up in the slogan Indonesian Youth TV Oriented Channel, and its on-air logo changed colour around the clock in the MTV style, including green and yellow for Ramadan and red and white for Independence Day, making it the first Indonesian channel to change its logo colours for those occasions. Slogans of the era included Nongkrong Terus di MTV and MTV Gue Banget, shared with MTV Indonesia.

The shift to general entertainment

After three years as a music channel, Global TV changed course. Following an agreement of 15 October 2004 to reduce MTV programming to twelve hours, on 15 January 2005 the channel shifted to general entertainment, began producing its own programmes for its twelve-hour broadcast and held a grand launching under the title Global TV Sejuta Satu Malam. The same day it expanded coverage to eighteen cities and introduced the slogan Seru!, meaning exciting, which also appeared in its on-air logo. In the same year Global TV became a broadcaster of Formula 1 and the A1 motor racing series. On 1 February 2006 it began a partnership with MTV Networks to broadcast Nickelodeon children's programming, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, under the banner Nick di Global TV. It also became a broadcaster of Italy's Serie A football that year.

Owning MTV Indonesia and the football years

On 1 January 2007 Global TV and MNC Media acquired MTV Indonesia outright after the previous agreement with MTV Asia, and the channel began producing MTV programmes locally, live from its own studios, including MTV Global Room, MTV Ampuh, MTV Total Request and MTV Insomnia. Global TV was one of the broadcasters of UEFA Euro 2008 alongside RCTI and TPI, carried the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup alongside RCTI, and broadcast the Premier League from the 2010-11 to 2012-13 seasons together with MNCTV. Gradually, however, music television shrank within the schedule: by 2011 MTV programmes aired only in the early hours, from 01:00 to 04:00, and on 1 January 2012 Global TV stopped airing MTV altogether after ten years, although it still carried MTV EXIT in September 2012. The channel's identity moved steadily toward the mainstream entertainment of its sister networks.

Rebranding as GTV

On 11 October 2017 Global TV was rebranded as GTV for its fifteenth anniversary, marked as Amazing 15, with a new logo that revised the letter G from the 2006 Global TV design; the GTV name had already been used as the network's initials. Its slogan as GTV became Pilihan Terbaik Keluarga Indonesia, the Indonesian family's best choice, with the sub-slogan Its Family Time used from 2023, reflecting a broader family positioning than its teenage music origins. After the rebrand GTV aired no sporting events from November 2017 until 2019. In 2019 it began broadcasting e-sports tournaments, contests and talent-search events, returning to event coverage through competitive gaming, a natural fit for the younger audience that remained part of its identity.

Programming today

GTV's current schedule mixes news, sport, soap operas, reality and game shows with Nickelodeon animated series and anime. Long-running features of the schedule include the quiz Family 100 and Take Me Out Indonesia, and above all the Nickelodeon catalogue anchored by SpongeBob SquarePants, which has aired on the channel since the Nickelodeon block began in 2006. News output is produced within the MNC group from the iNews Center studios, sharing presenters and infrastructure with RCTI, MNCTV and iNews. The channel is directed under Valencia Tanoesoedibjo within the MNC group. Streaming is provided through the group's platforms RCTI+ and Vision+ for viewers in Indonesia, alongside digital terrestrial reception nationwide.

Digital transition

GTV's distribution has followed the national move to digital broadcasting. Since 30 December 2020 GTV in Jakarta has used the new DVB-T2 transmitter operated by RCTI for Jakarta and surrounding areas. Its analogue service was not switched off on the main Jakarta date of 3 November 2022; the channel, with RCTI, shut down its analogue signal permanently on 4 November 2022 at midnight, following MNCTV, iNews and RCTI in the move to the group's shared digital channel for Greater Jakarta. The MNC Group completed its nationwide analogue shutdown on 1 August 2023, after which GTV has been an exclusively digital free-to-air service, consistent with Indonesia's full transition to high-definition digital terrestrial television in August 2023.

Identity and legacy

GTV's history contains two complete reinventions. It was conceived in 1999 as an Islamic-oriented broadcaster that never reached the air in that form, relaunched under MNC ownership as a youth music channel that made history as the first free-to-air station in the world to carry MTV around the clock, and then rebuilt again, first as a general entertainment channel in 2005 and finally under the shortened GTV name in 2017, aimed at young adults and families. Elements of each era survive: the Nickelodeon block from its music-channel years still anchors its children's schedule, its e-sports coverage speaks to the youth audience of the MTV period, and its slogan history, from MTV Gue Banget through Seru! to Pilihan Terbaik Keluarga Indonesia, records the journey in miniature. As one of MNC's four national free-to-air networks, GTV remains the group's most youth-leaning entertainment brand.