RKTV also provided coverage for the central northern states; it opened new stations on Zaria in July 1962 and on Kano in February 1963.

[7] Dramatic programming such as serials and anthology series were rare in regional television stations before NTA was founded in 1977.

[8] By 1980, when the new NTA network took over state-owned broadcasting stations in the country, there was a concerted effort to increase the quality of locally produced content.

NTA began offering support to the production of notable country-wide network programs such as Tales by Moonlight, Cockcrow at Dawn, and Mirror in the Sun as early as 1977.

[7] In 1982, a drama produced by NTA Sokoto, Moment of Truth won a prize at the fifth URTNA festival held in Algiers.

[9] With just a portion of the broadcast week for schedulers to work with, foreign imports were routinely some of the most popular shows from the UK and the U.S., such as Yes Minister, Charlie's Angels, Dallas, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest.

In 1984, NTA began to broadcast Tales by Moonlight, a children's programme narrating traditional African folklore stories.

[14] The network also promoted notable comedy series during this period such as New Masquerade and Ken Saro Wiwa's Basi and Company.

This led to the addition of sponsored and brokered religious programs and the live transmission of weddings and funeral services on the network.

NTA also continued to show acclaimed soap operas such as Mind Bending by Lola Fani-Kayode, Ripples by Zeb Ejiro and Checkmate by Amaka Igwe.

[15] Checkmate by Amaka Igwe, starring Richard Mofe Damijo, Bob-Manuel Udokwu, Ego Boyo, Kunle Bamtefa and Mildred Iweka, launched the career of many Nigerian celebrities.

Following the end of Ripples and Checkmate, NTA promoted the shows Blossom and Fortunes, but these series suffered from declining viewership.

At this time NTA, which previously had a broadcast monopoly, faced competition from new entrants such as Africa Independent Television.

To compete, the network introduced prime time Latin American telenovelas such as The Rich Also Cry, Secrets of the Sand and Wild Rose.

NTA introduced a new line of newscasters and reporters such as Ronke Ayuba, John Momoh, Cyril Stober, Bimbo Oloyede, Ruth Opia, Sienne Allwell-Brown and Sola Omole.

Investigative reporting and human stories are usually subordinate to covering government activities, with the exception of Newsline which airs on Sunday evenings.

[25] Other notable news productions include Panorama, One O' Clock Live, Inside the Senate, and You and Your Rep.[26] As of 2014, NTA had 101 stations in state capitals and towns of Nigeria, nine of which are network centres.

The network centres mostly derive from Nigeria's early broadcast stations, and are located at Ibadan, Jos, Enugu, Kaduna, Lagos, Benin, Makurdi, Maiduguri, Sokoto and Port Harcourt.

[9] NTA's digital Pay TV service, Startimes, was established in 2010 as a partnership with Star Communications Technology of China.