Television broadcasting in Singapore began on 15 February 1963. Public broadcaster Mediacorp, owned by the Singaporean government investment company Temasek Holdings, currently holds a monopoly on terrestrial television channels in the country. In addition, Pay-TV services are available from private operators such as StarHub TV and Singtel TV. Historically, the private ownership of satellite dishes was prohibited.
History Background (1952–1963) The introduction of television in Singapore began with experimental closed-circuit broadcasts during the British Radio Exhibition in August 1952, organised by the British Radio and Accessories Manufacturing Association (BRAMA). British electronics company Pye supplied the equipment and set up a temporary studio, with Governor J. F. Nicoll delivering the first televised speech. The exhibition attracted significant public attention, reaching an estimated 400,000 viewers, around 40% of Singapore's population at the time.
Although the Singaporean population had become aware of television technology, the government opposed a privately operated television service, favouring public ownership. In late 1952, a preliminary proposal estimated the initial cost of a state-run service at around $1 million, which would be funded through licence fees. Although private companies such as Cathay Organisation, Shaw Brothers, and Rediffusion submitted bids to operate a commercial station, all were rejected.
In 1956, the Legislative Assembly's proposal for commercial television faced strong opposition, notably from Lee Kuan Yew and Chief Secretary William Goode. Critics cited concerns about commercial exploitation, poor quality programming, and its potential influence on youth, who made up half the population. The government subsequently abandoned the commercial model and commissioned a study into establishing a government-run service.
By the early 1960s, the government sought technical expertise from Japan's NHK and Australia's ABC. Recommendations included a multilingual service using the 625-line CCIR standard. Contracts were awarded to the British Marconi Company for transmission and studio equipment, and to the Singaporean-Japanese company Marubeni-Iida for outside broadcast vehicles. The Ministry of Culture would operate the service, which was named Television Singapura. Staffing and equipment shortages postponed the target launch date from December 1962 to early 1963.
Television Singapura/Radio and Television Singapore (1963–1980) On 3 January 1963, the Singaporean government announced pilot programming would begin on February 15. The station would broadcast on VHF Channel 5 in the 625-line television standard. The licencing fee would be $24 per year ($2 per month). Pilot programming was initially less than two hours a day but had extended to four hours by April.
A second channel began broadcasting between August and September 1963. By March, programmes were offered in English and Hokkien. The service expanded to include Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, and other non-Mandarin varieties. By April, regular broadcasts were available in all of Singapore’s official languages.
A temporary studio was built at Caldecott Hill, Radio Singapore's headquarters. Bukit Batok was the site of the television transmitter. The staff included experienced workers from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. Television set manufacturers were asked to ensure their presets matched Channels 5 and 8 before service began.
As planned, Television Singapore launched its pilot service on 15 February 1963. Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam became the first person to appear on Singapore TV, announcing that, "[that night] might well mark the start of a social and cultural revolution in [the lives of Singaporeans]." After his speech, the station televised a 15-minute documentary, TV Looks at Singapore, produced by Television Singapura. Two cartoons, a news report, a newsreel, a comedy show, and a local variety show followed.
At the time, it was estimated that only 1 in 58 people in Singapore owned a TV set, and the pilot service offered only one hour of broadcasting per day on Channel 5. In March 1963, a local branch of the Australian company Ferris Industries began to manufacture television aerials in Singapore. That same month, Rajaratnam said that Television Singapore had the ambition to be "one of the best" in the world, "with the co-operation of the public." Despite these stated goals, there was strong criticism that television gave undue prominence to English and non-Mandarin Chinese varieties, with so little time given to programming in Malay and Tamil. In late March, a campaign was initiated to install television sets in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. By then, one week ahead of the start of regular broadcasts, the channel was broadcasting for three-and-a-half hours daily. At the beginning of April, a Straits Times survey showed that television was now available in as many as 7,000 Singaporean households. By August, the number of television sets had risen to 16,000.
On 2 April 1963, President Yusof Ishak officially inaugurated the regular service of Television Singapura. It began broadcasting from 7:15 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. nightly, showing programming in Singapore's four official languages (English, Mandarin and other Chinese varieties, Malay, and Tamil). Following the launch, it was suggested that television should be used "wisely," and not "as a drug."
Channel 8 began its test transmissions on Saturday, 31 August 1963, on Malaysia's national day (known then as Solidarity Day). Its first day consisted of a Hokkien film, repeats of India's participation in the South East Asian Cultural Festival, and Singapore Celebrates. A second test transmission took place between September 16 and 20, the same year, and devoted much of its time to the week-long celebrations, coinciding with the historic Proclamation of Malaysia and the political campaigns leading up to the 1963 General Election.
Channel 8 started regular broadcasts on 23 November 1963. At first, the channel aired for just two and a half hours each day, signing off at 10:10 p.m., with plans to match Channel 5's broadcasting hours the following year. As with Channel 5, its output was in a mix of every language of the time. Commercial advertising was allowed on Channel 5 starting 15 January 1964. Both channels aired during the brief time Singapore was a state of Malaysia, from that year to 9 August 1965, airing together with TV Malaysia from the Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur areas. From that day of independence, when then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew addressed Singaporeans, both channels became the national TV stations. They later formed the TV Division of Radio Television Singapore (RTS).
Television also had its critics. Universal Pictures' head, Milton Rackmil, while in Singapore in 1964, said that television was luring its viewers away from cinema and that viewers should return to cinema once the novelty wore off. Initially, television sets only received channels 5 to 10 in the VHF band (where the two Singaporean channels broadcast). However, in preparation for the start of Television Malaysia's relay station in Johor Bahru (which was on channel 3), and following complaints from viewers that they were unable to receive the station, all television sets sold in Singapore would receive all channels in the VHF band (1 to 11) from 9 December 1964.
On 1 May 1965, Television Malaysia Singapura started carrying four news bulletins a day, in each of the four official languages. The weekly total became 28, up from 16.
When Setron opened its new facility in April 1966, one out of six households had a television set, mostly due to rising incomes. A purpose-built television facility was opened on 26 August 1966, at a cost of $3.6 million. By that time, TV Singapura had experienced significant growth and developed recognition abroad. Its news bulletins received praise for the quality of its reports, and films shot by the news division were already being seen in the UK and Australia, with increasing demand from other countries. The new facility would also cater to the needs of the Educational Television Service, which was set to start early the following year.
Starting on 30 January 1967, Channel 8 also became home to the Educational Television Service, which showed TV programmes produced by the Ministry of Education on school subjects at different educational levels and in the four national languages. The block time slot would eventually be transferred to Channel 12 in 1993, under the CDIS (Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore) brand.
In 1970, the two RTS channels were broadcasting a weekly sum of 106 hours of programming.
Speculation emerged in 1972 that a third television channel would begin operating in Singapore, when on 13 January that year, the Centre for Production and Training of Adult Education Television (CEPTA TV) suggested that the new channel was to be used to boost adult education. The government said the following day that it had no plans to start the channel.
RTS revised its two television channels on 30 March 1973. Channel 5 would broadcast in English and Malay, and Channel 8 in Chinese and Tamil. This arrangement would last for the next twenty years. Around this time, roughly half of its programming was imported. The United Kingdom and the United States were the primary sources, yet there was a substantial amount of imports from West Germany, Hong Kong, and Australia.
In January 1974, RTS purchased two colour television transmitters from Marconi, worth $700,000. They were to be installed at Bukit Batok, which underwent an expansion to accommodate them; by April, RTS was receiving a $7 million order to install colour equipment. At the same time, RTS warned potential colour set buyers on purchasing sets capable of receiving UHF signals, as ETV planned to launch its own channel on UHF channel 27, independent from RTS's two VHF channels and projected to start producing its own programmes in colour by at least 1976. Test broadcasts with recorded programming were first held on 2 May 1974, consisting of test films and imported colour programming (such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show). On 7 July 1974, Channel 5 presented its first live colour broadcast, the 1974 FIFA World Cup Final. The first locally produced colour broadcast—the ninth Singapore National Day Parade—aired on 9 August. The second phase of the pilot colour service began on 11 November 1974, with newsreels being converted to colour. The number of weekly hours given to colour programming increased from two hours to four on weekdays and from four hours to six on weekends. The news would only be converted to colour in 1975 when the commissioned purpose-built colour studio was scheduled to open.
Starting on 1 July 1978, in line with the introduction of the Singapore government's Speak Mandarin Campaign, skits and advertisements on TV no longer used non-Mandarin Chinese varieties. On 30 October 1979, the Hong Kong drama Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龙记 or Yee Tin To Long Kei) became the first program in a non-Mandarin Chinese variety to be dubbed in Mandarin before its Singaporean broadcast. The Mandarin dub received negative feedback from Cantonese-language speakers, with RTS receiving over 100 letters from viewers about the decision, with one viewer noting that the dubs caused such productions to lose their "character and authenticity".
Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (1980–1994)