It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of West Monroe, Louisiana–licensed Fox affiliate KARD (channel 14), for the provision of certain services.

The two stations share studios on Pavilion Road in West Monroe; KTVE's transmitter is located northwest of Huttig, Arkansas.

On certain occasions, the signal can be seen as far north as Hot Springs, Arkansas, as far east as Jackson, Mississippi, and as far west as Texarkana, Texas.

[3] On August 1, 1972, KTVE, along with then sister-station WJHG-TV in Panama City, Florida, switched its primary affiliation to ABC, leaving NBC programming largely absent from the Monroe area until future sister station KLAA (now KARD) signed on in 1974, save select programming broadcast on the station and KNOE.

On December 6, 1981, KTVE rejoined NBC while KLAA became an ABC affiliate (that station changed its call letters to KARD one year later), clearing the entire network schedule except for two local daytime programs and Saturday Night Live.

The first program the station aired as a full-time NBC affiliate was an NFL game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins.

In the late 1990s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced KTVE to adopt a split-anchor format as a condition of renewing its license.

Although KTVE is the senior partner, operations were consolidated at KARD's studio in West Monroe; the two stations also share a website.

When this occurred, the station upgraded its set and graphics and changed its news theme from Stephen Arnold's "The Rock" to "Evolution".

On April 2, 2012, KTVE debuted a half-hour midday newscast titled Arkansas Today, airing weekdays at noon; produced by Little Rock sister station KARK-TV (anchor Mallory Hardin and meteorologist/co-host Greg Dee also appear on KARK's weekday morning newscast) and broadcast in high definition, the statewide newscast also features news stories filed by reporters from all four Nexstar-owned NBC stations serving Arkansas as well as a sports segment produced by Fayetteville sister station KNWA-TV, focusing on University of Arkansas athletics, called Razorback Nation.

In March 2009, KARD and KTVE informed the FCC that they needed to end analog operations sooner than June 12 (the earliest they could do so is April 16).

Used parts were deemed unreliable, and staffers had to travel 50 miles (80 km) to the transmitter from the studio; two to three visits per week were required to monitor the analog facilities, according to Nexstar.