Numerous factors, especially censorship problems from viewers, led to the shutdown of the channel on December 31, 1998.
As of 1963, Aramco TV employed a staff of 65, the vast majority of which (54) were Saudi Arabian and the remaining 11, from the Levant and the United States.
[6] In December 1998, the station ran an announcement informing its viewers that the channel was going to shut down on New Year's Eve.
For its first day after opening with the Quran reading, the station carried a talk by Fahmi Basrawi of Aramco Public Relations, telling the purpose of the service to its 1,900 viewers at the time, finishing with the local feature film Jazirat al-Arab (The Island of Allah, also The Island of Arabia), an Aramco production about King 'Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ud, the discovery of oil and the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.
The third day introduced Your Health, a long-running program produced by the station, the topic of the first edition was malaria control.
The station also carried standard US primetime fare, such as Disneyland, Sea Hunt, Checkmate, Rawhide and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
[5] These strict Islamic teachings were spread to programming in general, as was also the norm in other Muslim countries, as elements deemed haram were censored.
[4] The station had no written rules for its censorship standards, under the grounds that this depended on common sense and knowledge about Saudi society, but starting in 1982, the Ministry of Information set up an office in Dammam to monitor Aramco TV's programs, by cutting scenes that contradicted strict Islamic teachings.
Moreover, the station broadcast many series that state television wouldn't air, such as The Love Boat, Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days, Hart to Hart, Police Woman, Dallas and Hill Street Blues.