Cape Town TV (also known as CTV) is a community television channel that broadcasts in Cape Town, South Africa. It launched in September 2008 with a one-year, "temporary" license and thereafter won another such license in September 2009. It is a non-profit organisation that is licensed as a community broadcaster in terms of South Africa's Electronic Communications Act.

CTV is a free-to-air channel that broadcasts on an analogue transmission. The channel transmits from a single low-power transmitter located on Tygerberg hill, to the north of Cape Town. This site provides the widest possible coverage of the Cape Town metropolitan region, although it is only licensed (by ICASA) for low-power transmission. The channel is broadcast on the frequency 607.25 MHz (channel 38) on the UHF band.

Viewers can pick up the channel if they are in line-of-sight of Tygerberg mountain and their television aerials are oriented towards this site. Automatic or manual tuning of the television set should pick up the channel between the signals of SABC3 and eTV.

The signal will vary in strength depending on how far distant the viewer is from the Tygerberg site. In order for the channel to gain a stronger signal and increased coverage of the region, additional transmitters will be needed, some of which will be of a considerably higher power. However, each transmitter is licensed to transmit particular frequencies and there is at present a shortage of available frequency spectrum (in South Africa generally, but particularly in Cape Town). Not only will CTV require considerably more funding to acquire such transmitters, but ICASA will also have to license additional frequencies for the channel. This is unlikely to happen before frequency spectrum is 'freed up' by the migration from analogue to digital television transmission, which was scheduled to be completed in 2012.

Cape Town TV (known by the acronym CTV) was founded by community media activists in 2004, following the release of regulations governing the community television sector in South Africa by the broadcasting regulator, ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa). These activists formed the Cape Town Community Television Collective (CTCTC), which consisted of a grouping of organisations working in the field of community media.

The Collective engaged in a process of ongoing discussions aimed at creating a community television channel for Cape Town, based on principles of social development, democracy, justice and human rights. Consultations were held with other civil society organisations and the wider public, which resulted in the organisation being formally launched at its first annual general meeting (AGM) in September 2006. This was attended by over 100 representatives from civil society organisations in Cape Town.

The organisation first approached the national public service broadcaster, the SABC, for a programming 'window' which would be viewed only in the Western Cape region. This approach was rejected by the SABC and the organisation then decided to stage its own broadcast. Up to this time, the only community TV broadcasts which had been allowed in South Africa were temporary broadcasts of up to four weeks in duration, which were linked to "special event" licenses.

ICASA began issuing longer "temporary" licenses of up to one year in 2007, when it licensed Soweto TV in Johannesburg for a 12-month period in July of that year. Consequently, the CTCTC decided to also pursue a one-year license because this would provide a firmer foundation for a permanent community television channel. Application for such a license was made and this was granted by ICASA in July 2008, although the channel was only able to launch on 1 September 2008.