Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its commercial counterparts.

Among the programs NHK General TV broadcasts are the annual New Year's Eve spectacular Kōhaku Uta Gassen, the year-long Taiga drama, and the daytime Asadora.

[1] General TV's all-day audience rating in the Kanto area (surveyed by Video Research) was ranked first in a row for 24 years from 1963 to 1986, pushing out each commercial key station.

NHK conducted experimental broadcasts in 1939-1940 (interrupted due to its entry in the war), the callsign of the station in Tokyo was J2PQ, video frequency 4.5 MHz, output 500W.

At 2 P.M. that day, a special program was broadcast to introduce the new stations, with congratulatory messages from officials of the respective cities.

From May 29 to December 23, 1957, further stations opened in Nagano, Shizuoka, Kanazawa, Okayama, Matsuyama and Kokura (Kitakyushu).

On March 20, 1966, the National Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (now NTT) completed the standardization works for color TV microwave lines throughout Japan (excluding the area between Kagoshima and Naze).

Due to this colorization, black-and-white broadcasting excluding reruns of past works has disappeared from Japanese TV programs.

On January 17, 1995, when the Great Hanshin earthquake occurs, NHK begin a special news program at 5:51pm on all broadcast channels, including Educational TV.

In April 1996, NHK General begins 24 hours transmissions on weekends (Fridays and Saturdays late at night).

[5] Its purpose is to disseminate information and knowledge of Japanese and Asian culture, and as a counterweight to channels such as CNN International and BBC World.

[6] JIB began airing such programs in February 2009, starting with Japan in the First Person, a co-production of the five major "Tokyo-area" commercial TV stations.

One consequence was that the Swedish, German and Italian departments of foreign channel Radio Japan were shut down in autumn 2007.