The station first signed on the air on 17 August 1965; it is considered the first TVRI regional station as well as the first local-oriented television station in Indonesia. The first broadcast is the 20th anniversary of Indonesia's Independence commemoration speech by the then Deputy GovernorPaku Alam VIII. Instead of being founded by the TVRI Foundation, the foundation that oversee TVRI from its inception in 1962 until the late 1990s, TVRI Yogyakarta was founded by the Radio Directorate of the Ministry of Information. Ir. Dewabrata became the first head of the station. In the first few years the station was not a part of TVRI network, but rather a standalone station. TVRI Yogyakarta originally broadcast from Jalan Hayam Wuruk, Yogyakarta. After receiving land assistance from the then Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, the station studio transmitter tower occupies a new location on Jalan Magelang km. 4,5 in Sleman, covering an area of 4 hectares. At first TVRI Yogyakarta aired three times a week, with two-hour duration each. At the time the broadcast range was still limited to areas that could be reached by a 10 kW VHF transmitter, as well as black and white broadcast format. In 1973, the station had begun broadcasting every day. Starting in 2005, the stations name and logo incorporated the brand Jogja from the Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X handwriting used for Jogja Never Ending Asia tourism branding, thus the TVRI Jogja on-air name is used. In early November 2008 a new transmitter tower was built in Patuk to expand its broadcast coverage. It was done due to the topographical factors in Gunungkidul and Kulonprogo regencies, resulting in some regions could not receive TVRI Yogyakarta broadcasts before 2009. Furthermore, considering the new transmitting equipments and the quality decline of the old ones in Jalan Magelang, on 10 March 2010 the VHF channel 8 only used for local programming. In August 2014, the VHF channel was shut down. On March 2015 the new Jogja Istimewa brand is unveiled, the logo follows the new branding. Following the TVRI rebranding in March 2019, currently TVRI Jogja brand is no longer used as on-air name and only used as alternative branding.
Programming
In analog channel, TVRI Yogyakarta broadcasts 28 hours of locally produced programming each week, the same duration as other TVRI regional stations. In digital dedicated channel, the station broadcasts up to 64 hours of local programming each week, with 8 hours each day.
