Chinese Television System

In early 1968, Lieutenant General Wang Sheng, deputy director of the General Political Operations Department of the Ministry of National Defense (now the Political Operations Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense), proposed the establishment of a third TV station. The Ministry of National Defense negotiated with the Ministry of Education to obtain a willingness to cooperate. On December 6, 1968, Minister of Defense Chiang Ching-kuo and Minister of Education Yan Zhenxing agreed to cooperate to expand the Educational Television Broadcasting Station (Network of Educational Television) into China Television based on the following needs:

National education in the Republic of China has been extended to nine years. Due to the limited capacity of schools above high school, the problem of out-of-school youth has become increasingly serious. The Ministry of Education believes that by expanding a third TV station and establishing a television network, it can operate an air school to educate out-of-school youth and achieve "the ideal of reading without being separated from production" has achieved universal results with a very small number of teachers.

The National Army of the Republic of China has implemented patriotic education, in-camp remedial education, reserve soldier education, retired officers and soldiers employment guidance and education, recreational activities, etc. for many years and has been effective. Due to the scattered locations of various armies, it is difficult to find teachers, and many difficulties arise during implementation. The Ministry of National Defense believes that if television is used to unify teaching, it will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Educational television stations are extremely limited in terms of equipment and funds. Without timely and appropriate updates, it will be difficult for them to achieve their mission.

Founded on October 31, 1971, CTS began as a joint venture between the Republic of China Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Education. In its inception, CTS was the only VHF television channel on the island of Taiwan. In 1998, the channel was commissioned by the Republic of China to provide an "Electronic Government" program, which would act as an informational source for government workers.

On July 1, 2006, by virtue of the government's media reform law, the channel was incorporated into the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) (the island state's consortium of public television stations) with Public Television Service (PTS) being the other member of the group. The new structure called for the transfer of the station's main studios from Taipei to Kaohsiung over a span of five years. Afterwards, it was allowed to continue to generate income through traditional advertisements and maintain its 60-40 ratio of entertainment to news programming.

Given its reputation as the network wherein many of Taiwan's best dramas were broadcast, CTS today is active in an ongoing campaign to restore its status as the official drama channel of Taiwan.

On April 19, 2021, CTS News and Info Channel took over Taiwan's Cable Channel 52 replaced the rival CTi News, owned by the Want Want China Times Group after the National Communications Commission approved CTS News and Info Channel's transfer from cable channel 130 to cable channel 52.