Founded in 1972, DCTV has fostered a diverse and inclusive media arts community for over 30 years. DCTV is the most honored independent nonprofit media center in the nation. Its productions, reaching over 100 million viewers each year, have received 13 national Emmy Awards, three duPont-Columbia Awards, and every other major award in the television field. DCTV complements its own artistic achievements by working to extend the tools of television and electronic media production to a broader, more diverse set of artists. Toward this end, over the past 32 years DCTV has taught over 50,000 students, most of them members of low-income and minority communities, the essentials of television production. DCTV offers over 150 free or low-cost video and electronic media training workshops to 2,000 students a year.

In 2006, DCTV was awarded a grant from the Open Society Institute to enable young filmmakers engaged in DCTV's Media Fellows PRO-TV program to meet with teens from New Orleans to produce documentaries about the impact of Katrina. PRO-TV is a multi-award winning initiative that provides free professional training in film and television production to inner-city youth throughout New York City.