The channel has a wide range of programming such as drama series, television premieres of major Iranian movies, and talk shows.

The channel televised major sporting events until IRIB TV3 attained the rights for those broadcasts, as well as numerous viewers.

[8] However, by 1963, it claimed to have lost 70 million rials, and its owners attempted to sell the station to the government, but by then it had already approved plans for its own television network.

[9] The Iranian government were concerned over the commercial nature of the service, which prompted action to introduce educational programming.

Programming became mostly local; the few imports that were carried over were a handful of cartoons, old movies and the British documentary series The World at War.

IRIB officials determined that over time, the content of the television service would be lightened by subsidizing new Iranian productions.

[14] During the management of Ali Larijani, this channel changed its analogue colour broadcasting system from SECAM to PAL.

On December 9, 2019, on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the establishment of the channel and its HD version, the IRIB TV1 updated its visual identity and graphics.

The channel uses turquoise blue as its signature color, which is evocative of Iranian architecture and representative of its civilization.