[8] As early as 1976, some members of parliament demanded the creation of a commercial television channel, but concerns were raised by the government over a potential loss of revenue from newspapers and magazines.
[12] One of the plans was to recapture urban audiences, who had escaped television in pursuit of other forms of entertainment, especially home video, a practice that, among the ethnic groups, was more prevalent in Chinese Malaysians.
[20] The television channel used to broadcast from a building in Jalan Liku, Bangsar, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur before it moved to Sri Pentas, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor in 1995.
[21][22] Initially, the channel ran for seven hours a day - 5:00pm to 12:00am relying largely on television series produced mainly in the UK and the USA.
Among the shows seen on the new service were Yellow Rose, Hill Street Blues (which SBC rejected), Just Our Luck and Scarecrow and Mrs King.
[26] In late June 1984, the government was studying the effects to TV3 related to the permission of allowing private radio stations to be opened.
[28] The stations outside Kuala Lumpur would refuse to air content that had already been the source of controversy from conservative figures, with documentaries and related programming likely to fill in the slots.
[34] Within weeks TV3 showed its silence over the installation of the new station in Johor, as well as further incompatibilities with the Singaporean legal system, including tobacco advertising (which SBC outlawed) and movies in Chinese dialects other than Mandarin.
[37] Singaporean advertisers at the time were hesitant in switching to TV3, preferring to wait for the arrival of the station to Johor in order to see the results.
10% of the programming was in Malay (main news and the current affairs programme Majalah Tiga), 10% in Chinese (especially Hong Kong dramas) and the remaining 80% in English.
[49] Singapore's Housing Development Board said that it wouldn't modify its rooftop antennas to receive the new service, as it was against the Singaporean government's policy to facilitate the reception of foreign television stations.
[58] In December 1987, TV3 began running its in-house produced 41-second public service announcement spot on AIDS, featuring the voice of Nassier Rahman.
[61] TV3 had its near-debut in the food business in November 1988[62] with the acquisition of some of Cold Storage's shares but did not materialise because the receipt of approval did not reach the authorities at that time.
[70] During the 1990 general election campaign, TV3 was the only TV crew among the thirty local and foreign newsmen in the Semangat 46 party manifesto reveal.
[72] The New Straits Times Press through its employees Abdul Kadir Jasin and Khalid Ahmad bought TV3 in a management buyout in 1993.
[73] In January 1994, TV3 entered the mini-cinema business with the 60% acquisition of Power Annex Sdn Bhd, a local film distributor and cinema franchise company.
[75] Among its programmes include Buletin Awal, which started at 6 am, a morning edition of Business News and Malaysia Hari Ini, with its initial lineup of presenters of Mahadzir Lokman, Christine Ling, Aziz Desa and Hasbullah Awang.
[76] TV3 and public broadcaster, RTM in August 1994 were ordered by the Information Minister, Mohamed Rahmat to banned khunsa (a person who have both male and female genitals) and pondan (a men who resembles a women) from appeared in any of its programs.
[79] On 1 July 1995, TV3 along with Indonesian station RCTI launched Citra Nusantara, airing Saturdays at 8 am, "providing topical insights" of Malaysia and Indonesia.
[86] In April 1998, TV3 and MRCB agreed to build studios and audiotorium in Shah Alam, costing RM 7.2 million and planned to be completed on 31 October 1998.
[90][91][92] It also held a charity campaign known as Kurniaan Harapan (A Gift of Hope) in collaboration with the Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital and the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) to raised funds for the visually-impaired.
[98][99] On 6 September 2007, TV3 along with its sister channels, ntv7, 8TV and TV9 made available for online viewing via Media Prima's newly-launched streaming service, Catch-Up TV, which later rebranded as Tonton.
[116] The Workers' Party suggested the government to revise the policy, while still not understanding the rationale behind the decision, and that the move would discourage competition from SBC's channels.
[120] An episode of the American documentary series Against the Odds profiling former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir was inadvertently broadcast on 18 April 1985.
Its secretary-general Kamaruddin Jaafar demanded that TV3 should stop airing Western shows and introduce religious and educational programmes in their place.
[25] On 8 December 1984, Anwar Ibrahim, chief of the youth wing of UMNO condemned the channel's approach and its preferrence for English over Malay.
[124] Another reality television show, Teleskop, was banned in 1995 after panellist Nasir Jani's swearing towards Prime Minister at the time, Mahathir Mohamad on air.
[125] In 2010, TV3 broadcast a Hari Raya Aidilfitri advertisement featuring an old man on a flying trishaw and blooming lotus-like flowers, which were said to be reminiscent of Christian and Hindu motifs.
TV3 apologized for the showing of the film's indescent scene to Malaysian viewers, while stated that it "acquiesce to the mistakes that occur that cause objections from several parties".
[129] From 1 April 2016 to 31 December 2016, A teleshopping block called CJ Wow Shop was broadcast across Media Prima channels.