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Television has a long history in Ukraine, where regular television broadcasting started during the Soviet years in 1951. However the first ever TV broadcast took place on 1 February 1939 in Kyiv. Since then TV broadcasting has expanded, particularly after the fall of Communism in 1989, and now there are many different channels and groups in the Ukrainian TV market.

On 1 May 1952, Labor Day, a live concert was aired on film (shot in the small and only pavilion of the studios known as "Studio B") starring Ukrainian singers, soloists of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko Opera Theater. The anchorwoman of the concert was the Kyiv Telecentre's first announcer – Novella Serapionova. In 1953, the construction of the building of the Kyiv Telecentre on Khreshchatyk was completed, right after Moscow and Leningrad's broadcasting studios wereb oth completed. Regular programming started to go on air beginning November 1956. Until that year, the Kyiv TV Station went on air twice a day showing feature films or documentaries on a test basis. Live broadcasting was the only form of broadcasting during those early years from Kyiv, as well as relays from Moscow via Smolensk and Rostov-on-Don transmitters and film sent from there. Videotaped productions (save for news programming and special coverages that were aired live) became the usual form for many productions in the mid-1960s

As a result of an ongoing expansion of broadcasts to other parts of Ukraine thru the building of remote studios and broadcast transmitters, it was needed for DerTelRadio - the State Committee of Radio and TV of Ukraine, operators of the TV service - to consider stating nationwide broadcasts, coupled with the future launch of satellite broadcasting. The long-awaited national channel signed on at last on January 20, 1965, under the name UT-1 (Ukrainian television-1), today Pershyi, while on March 6, 1972, a second channel, UT-2, signed on - on the basis of part of the original 1956 channel. The UT network switched to SECAM Colour in 1976, its 20th anniversary. In 1983, construction began on new broadcasting studios at 42 Melnyk Street, which opened after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993.

After the Orange Revolution, Ukrainian television became more free. In February 2009 the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting claimed that "political pressure on mass media increased in recent times through amending laws and other normative acts to strengthen influence on mass media and regulatory bodies in this sphere"

As of January 2009, Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko refused to appear in Inter TV-programmes "until journalists, management and owners of the TV channel stop destroying the freedom of speech and until they remember the essence of their profession - honesty, objectiveness, and unbiased stand".

In early March 2014, Ukraine-based TV channels were removed in Crimea ahead of the Russian annexation referendum. Later that month, the Ukrainian National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting ordered measures against some Russian TV channels accused of broadcasting misleading information about Ukraine. In February 2015 the law "On protection information television and radio space of Ukraine," banned the showing (on Ukrainian television) of "audiovisual works" that contain "popularization, propaganda, any action of law enforcement agencies, armed forces, other military or security forces of an invader" was enacted. One year later Russian productions (on Ukrainian television) had decreased by 300 to 400 percent. 15 more Russian TV channels were banned in March 2016

According to the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No.509 dated June 13, 2018, analogue broadcasting was disconnected on the territory of Kirovohrad Oblast and Kyiv from July 31, 2018. The date of the switch-off of analogue broadcasting on the rest of Ukraine is August 31, 2018

A Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found that for the first time Ukrainians preferred the Internet as their primary news source instead of television (51% preferred the Internet and 41% TV).