As of March 2024, SABC 2 broadcasts programming only in English, Venda, Tsonga, Sotho, Sepedi & Setswana.

The launch of SABC-TV caused South Africa to become the last country in the industrialised world to introduce television and had a viewership base of one million.

[6] As of 1977, the SABC-TV service was delivered over eighteen transmitters: Two years after launch, a South African Sunday newspaper called the service "prissy and pricey": "prissy" due to the strict moral standards of the SABC and "pricey" due to the high costs of both buying a television set and paying the licence fee.

In 1986, a new service called TV4 was introduced, carrying sports and entertainment programming, also timesharing with TV2 and TV3 on the same frequency, which stopped broadcasting at 9:30pm.

The amount of time allocated to Afrikaans-language programming on the new channel (SABC 2) fell from 50% to 15% - a move that alienated Afrikaans speakers.

[16] With the commercialisation of the SABC in July 1997, the channel decided to drop its loss-making breakfast show Good Morning South Africa that it had inherited from the Apartheid-era TV1.

[18] For 2002, the channel was committed to be "the voice, the heart and the mind of South Africans", owing to its broadcast footprint - the largest out of any SABC terrestrial network.

7de Laan increased its number of weekly episodes to four, while Muvhango was planned to enter its third season in April that year.

The channel is popular for its two longest-running soapies 7de Laan and Muvhango, dramas such as Erfsondes, Geraamtes in die Kas, Roer Jou Voete and 90 Plein Street, and Telenovelas such as Keeping Score, Giyani: Land of Blood and Die Sentrum.

SABC 2 has in the past, broadcast international series such as NCIS, Pretty Little Liars, Teen Wolf and The Vampire Diaries.

In addition, it has current affairs programmes including Ngula Ya Vutivi, Zwa Maramani and Leihlo La Sechaba.

SABC 2 has a roster of shows from its SABC Education slate, most notably Takalani Sesame, It's For Life, The Epic Hangout, among others, and also brings educational shows on how to manage money and a focus on senior citizens, as well as other children's shows from Disney Junior, either in their original English soundtrack or dubbed in South African languages, such as The Lion Guard in isiZulu, Ben 10 in Afrikaans and Doc McStuffins in Sotho.

For teens and preteens it offers comedy series from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, such as ICarly, True Jackson, VP, A.N.T.

Farm, Sanjay and Craig, The Sparticle Mystery, Star Falls and Cookabout, as well as local series including Signal High, Snake Park and Hectic Nine-9.