Television is a comparatively young media in the country, which began broadcasting its first program 33 years ago. Television viewers appear to have a strong loyalty to the Mongolian National TV, which for many years, has been the only visual information and entertainment medium in Mongolia. UB TV was founded on the basis of the Mongolian TV film studio. As for the private TV channels, they need to improve their programming to win the audiences of the state owned TV. "Channel-25" appears to have made some gains in this area with its widely watched "l:l"-social, political talk show and "hard talk". "Channel-5" focuses primarily on sports and entertainment but also offers political programs. These three TV stations, as well as UBS TV, broadcast to the Ulaanbaatar area. In addition, 24 local TV channels operate in urban areas like Darkhan and Erdenet and various aimags.
While there are private broadcast outlets in Mongolia, none have the range of Mongolian National Television and Radio, which broadcast across Mongolia's vast and remote regions. The year of 2003 was an extraordinary year for televisions operated in Ulaanbaatar. 2 televisions (TVS and TV9) were established newly and one television (Eagle TV) stopped its operation. As TVS began to broadcast through the Internet, the first Internet television of Mongolia was formed. As of ownerships and affiliations of televisions, state owned televisions increased by land private-owned by 3. Total weekly broadcasting hours of MNTV and other televisions broadcasting in Ulaanbaatar increased by 54 percent. Cable TV was first introduced in Mongolia by Sansar CATV Co.,Ltd, Ikh Mongol, Khiimor CATV in 1995.
They became popular especially among those who enjoy no good TV reception due to geographical location. Presently, 17 private cable TV stations operate in Ulaanbaatar and other cities. Mongolian National television owned by the Mongolian Government now broadcasts to Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian language for a daily average of up to 15 hours. To the rural areas, MNTV broadcasts use different VHP channels, receiving the signal from the satellite or radio relay network signals. In 1981, Mongolian National TV switched to color in the SECAM system, and has been broadcasting in the PAL system since 1999. However, most of its studios still run on the SECAM system.
In 1991, MNTV began broadcasting via the Asiasat satellite and in 1997 switched to the Intelsat. Today some 80 per cent of the Mongolian population watches MNTV. Most equipment in MNTV is Russian or Japanese made, which was installed 1985-1988. MNTV began developing co-operation with foreign partner organizations in 1973 after joining the international organization OIRT. In 1991, MNTV was accepted as a associate member of the ABU (Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union) and became a full ABU member in January 1997. Broadcasting locally produced material, MNTV has TV program exchanges with the Russian public TV system, Japan's NHK, the American CNN, and Germany's ZDF and DW. MNTV has an extensive training exchange programme, notably with NHK.
