After the fall of communism in the Czechoslovakian Republic, programming began to be relaunched, and the Bratislava studio was renamed as Slovenská televízia in preparation for the Slovakian independence.

A third channel, OK 3, focusing on international satellite programming, launched on May of the same year, but it was replaced by a similarly-focused Slovakia-specific service, TA3, in July 1991.

Still, the complex social and political issues that hampered Slovakia after independence, as well as heavy turnover of management, a lack of clear identification between both programs, and heavy bias toward the towards the People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia during the Vladimír Mečiar government, caused the broadcaster to rapidly lose most of its audience, as well as its credibility.

On the evening of 1 January 2004, STV relaunched both channels with new programming and new brand identities, after a massive promotional campaign anticipating a "new beginning" for public broadcasting.

STV1, now renamed as Jednotka, was repositioned as a generalist and mass audience channel, with a focus on light entertainment and increased news programming.

[5] The entire Slovak TV brand was renewed, with new logos, graphic packages and a new look for STV's news programmes, including a new virtual studio.

Adaptations of international franchises, like Pop Idol and C'è posta per te, became heavily criticised due to its high production costs and led to heavy accusations of dumbing down;[6][7] additionally, internally-produced programming was limited during the Rybníček directorate, and the majority of international TV shows and films (mostly American) were broadcast with Czech dubbing.

During the first days of the relaunch, audiences for both channels did increase to a combined 30.2 per cent share,[9] and soon, Jednotka had engaged in three-way race with Markíza and a resurgent TV JOJ, which had strengthened its programming concept.