Daifu was established on February 20, 1998[1] with the aim of establishing what would become its flagship channel, Daifu Channel, by arranging a contract with China Central Television to relay part of CCTV-4's programs and add Japanese productions to cater the needs of the Chinese in Japan.[2] The name Daifu is a contraction of two of its founding shareholders: Dai (大 on reading "dai") from Ōkura Zaibatsu (大倉商事) and Fu (富) from Fuji (富士, as in Fuji Television).[3] A few weeks after CCTV-Daifu started broadcasting, Ōkura was declared bankrupt[4] and the financial structure was partitioned between Dentsu, Fuji Television, Sony, Asatsu-DK and Kyocera.[1]
Daifu published its own newspaper, Daifu News (大富報) in April 1999. Publication ceased in July 2005 after 151 issues. All issues are in the archives of the National Diet Library.[5] On November 20, 2001, Daifu signed a contract with TVB's international arm TVBI to launch TVB Daifu,[6] which started broadcasting on December 1, 2001.[7] In February 2009, it acquired the Japanese version of Phoenix Television from Rakuraku Communications, with its new ownership starting on April 1.[8]
TVB Daifu shut down on September 30, 2011. Daifu decided to cut its prices for the bundle as it was now carrying two channels instead of three.[9]