In addition, MTN owns the Montana Ag Network, which provides farm and ranch reports on television.

Established in 1969 in its current form by Montana broadcasting pioneer Joe Sample, MTN was originally conceived as a way to unify Montanans and connect the state's comparatively isolated population centers.

Expansions in local news in Kalispell and Bozeman, as well as a full entrance into the Helena market and later the purchase of its established commercial station, have grown the network over the last 20 years.

[5] Sample then merged the three stations owned by his Garryowen Corporation-KOOK-TV, KRTV, and KXLF-TV-into the Montana Television Network.

Sample believed that the presentation of regional news could serve as a major unifier in Montana, a rural state with widely separated population centers.

[12] Also networked beginning in 1969, when Sample bought KRTV, was Today in Montana, a 30-minute morning agriculture program that had been on the air in Great Falls since 1962.

[17] In 1986, Evening Post Industries purchased the MTN stations outside of Billings, which Lilly continued to own for another eight years.

[18] Evening Post beefed up the news staffs in Great Falls, Missoula and Butte, which began producing full 30-minute local newscasts for their areas.

Despite the split ownership, the network continued as a going concern, exchanging news and sports stories and airing programs of statewide interest.

[19] In 1990, KXGN-TV in Glendive, the only station in the nation's smallest television market, became affiliated with MTN and began airing KTVQ's newscasts.