A Channel That Refuses to Sell Anything

Da Ai Television, whose name translates roughly as Great Love, went on the air on January 1, 1998, built and operated by the Tzu Chi Foundation, the Taiwanese Buddhist charity founded by the nun and teacher Dharma Master Cheng Yen. The channel was conceived from the start as an extension of Tzu Chi's broader humanitarian and spiritual mission rather than as a conventional broadcaster: it does not accept commercial advertisements of any kind, funding its operations instead through a combination of Tzu Chi's own recycling and environmental programs, staffed largely by volunteer workers, and direct donations from supporters of the foundation's work.

By October 1999, less than two years after its Taiwan launch, Da Ai had already expanded into a dedicated global satellite channel, Da Ai Tai, built to reach Tzu Chi's members and the broader Chinese speaking diaspora far beyond Taiwan itself. The network became the first station in Taiwan to broadcast digitally in 2005, and it added a high definition channel in 2012, technical milestones that reflect a station reinvesting steadily in its own infrastructure despite refusing the advertising revenue that funds most commercial broadcasters' equivalent upgrades.