Mediacorp

Mediacorp's origins can be traced to the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, which was awarded a broadcasting license by the British crown on 1 June 1936 as a radio network. One year later, in 1937, the company officially opened its studios and transmitters at Caldecott Hill. The corporation was taken over by the Straits Settlement government in 1940 as a part of the British Department of Information, known back then as the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, the local counterpart to the BBC. Radio news and information, as well as local entertainment, were aired on its stations in English (and later Mandarin and Malay). On the basis of the Radio Malaya broadcasters that moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1958, Radio Singapore took over the year after as the radio service for Singapore, organized into a station each for English, Malay and Mandarin listeners.

Shortly after Singapore reached self-government status on 3 June 1959, there were plans to obtain television transmission rights. This manifested the founding of Television Singapura on 4 April 1961. Television Singapura started test broadcasts from 21 January to 15 February 1963, when it was officially launched as the first television station in Singapore. On 2 April that year, Channel 5, the then-new channel, began regular broadcasts. On 23 November that year, Channel 8 was launched and programming was split, with Channel 5 airing English and Malay programming and Channel 8 programming in Mandarin and other Chinese dialects together with Tamil.

In January 1964, Television Singapura became the state branch of the new Televisyen Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur and was subsequently rebranded as sister channel "Television Malaysia (Singapura)", while Radio Singapura's stations became part of Radio Malaysia.

After the separation of Singapore from the Malaysian federation, all of the Malaysian television and radio operations in Singapore were fused to become Radio Television Singapore (RTS), a part of the Ministry of Culture. RTS was officially dissolved on 31 January 1980 and its assets transferred to the then-new Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, a statutory board under national supervision.

On 31 January 1984, SBC started broadcasting on channel 12. It also launched two radio stations: "Perfect 10" and "YES", the latter airing Mandarin music. SBC began stereo broadcasting on its television channels on 1 August 1990.

An educational programming block known as CDIS began airing on channel 12 on 4 January 1993. On 1 February of that year, SBC celebrated its 30 years of television broadcasting. On 7 June that year, Channel 8 expanded its airtime on weekdays, from 3:00 pm until closedown. On 1 December that year, SBC launched a satellite television network named Singapore International Television (SITV). On 1 January 1994, Channel 12 began broadcasting Malay programmes during primetime, resulting in Channel 5 becoming a full-fledged English language channel for the first time.

On 1 October that year, SBC was privatised into a new holding group called the Singapore International Media Company Group (SIM), divided into three divisions: Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS), Radio Corporation of Singapore (RCS) and Singapore Television Twelve (STV12). On 1 January 1999, the Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp) took over the operations of the three divisions as SITV ended operations.

Channel 8 began airing 24 hours a day on 1 September 1995. On the same day, STV12 renamed channel 12 as Prime 12, which focused on multilingual programming in Malay, Tamil, English, and foreign languages. It also launched a new channel called Premiere 12, which was centred on niche programmings such as sports, arts, culture, documentaries and kids' series. Meanwhile, Channel 8 switched its programming to a Mandarin language-oriented one. At the same time, all Tamil programming was moved to Prime 12. Channel 5 became the second TV channel to broadcast 24 hours a day, starting from 29 September that year.

TCS launched its own film production studio Raintree Pictures[2] on 1 August 1998.

On 1 March 1999, Mediacorp launched Channel NewsAsia (CNA) as its first dedicated news network, broadcasting as an analogue, free-to-air channel.

On 15 June that year, the Singapore International Media group of companies restructured into MediaCorp to prepare for media competition in Singapore, which happened two years later.[3]

On 30 January 2000 Prime 12 and Premiere 12 were renamed Suria and Central respectively. Suria became a Malay-language channel while Central was divided into three timeshare networks. SportCity, a sports channel, was also launched on the same year.

On 12 February 2001, the Television Corporation of Singapore, Radio Corporation of Singapore and Singapore Television Twelve were renamed to Mediacorp TV, Mediacorp Radio, Mediacorp TV12 respectively as part of a new management plan.[4]

The television monopoly was broken on 6 May that year when Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) was given a television broadcasting licence, resulting in the founding of SPH MediaWorks. MediaWorks launched two channels: the Chinese-language Channel U and English-language TVWorks, which was later renamed to Channel i. At the same time, MediaCorp was granted the license to distribute the daily tabloid Today.

However, to stop further economic losses due to competition with each other, SPH agreed to merge some of its businesses with Mediacorp on 17 September 2004. It was legally completed on 31 December that year, creating the new holding company MediaCorp TV Holdings, which would manage and operate the remaining channels. SPH-owned Channel i was later closed down due to low ratings.

On 11 November 2007, HD5 was launched and Channel 5 became the first DTT station in Singapore to broadcast in HD.[5] MediaCorp also launched MOBTV, an online television service.

On 19 October 2008, Central's three timeshare networks were divided into two independent channels: the kids and arts programming blocks were replaced by Okto and took over Channel i's channel space and frequency. On the other hand, Vasantham took over the channel space and frequency left by Central.

Channel NewsAsia was relaunched on 21 January 2013, and officially broadcasts 24 hours a day with live news bulletins and breaking news throughout the night.[6] On 30 September that year, Mediacorp shut down its Teletext service,[7] whilst on 16 December that year, all MediaCorp free-to-air channels on DTT were upgraded to DVB-T2.[8]

On 4 May 2015, OKTO started airing in HD while CNA started airing in HD on 26 May that year.

On 8 December 2015, Mediacorp officially opened a new headquarters at One-north's Mediapolis development. The 12-storey complex was designed by DP Architects and Maki and Associates and features a "fenceless" design with four studios, a 1,500-seat "broadcast-ready" theatre, and an integrated multi-platform newsroom. The company expected to complete the migration from its previous Caldecott Hill facilities by July 2016. Alongside the new headquarters, Mediacorp also unveiled a new logo, which was designed to reflect the broadcaster's "vibrancy" and "multiplicity", acting as an "a window to the world and a reflection of life".[9]

At midnight on 2 January 2019, Mediacorp's analogue signals signed off, completing Singapore's transition to digital terrestrial television.[10]

On 1 May 2019, Okto was discontinued as a standalone channel, with its children's programming becoming a daytime block on Channel 5 under the Okto branding. Okto's sports programming was moved primarily to Mediacorp's streaming service Toggle.sg and Channel 5 itself.[11]

On 30 January 2020, Mediacorp rebranded its digital media platforms Toggle, MeRadio and MeClub as meWatch, meListen and meRewards respectively. The rebranding came as part of the broadcaster's "Made for You" initiative to build multi-platform services "designed around consumers' preferences and consumption habits".[12]

Mediacorp offers eleven FM radio channels.[13] The company's digital audio broadcasting service was discontinued on 1 December 2011.[14]

Mediacorp offers six channels, including vernacular channels in Singapore.

meWATCH[15] (formerly Toggle) was launched in 2013 as an OTT service. On 1 April 2015, xinmsn was closed down and merged with Toggle.[16][17][18] It is Mediacorp’s digital video service that redefines TV viewing, bringing Toggle Originals, catch-up content, live coverage of key national events, news, entertainment, and behind-the-scene exclusives to viewers across multiple devices – computers, tablets, smartphones, Smart TVs and Apple TVs.

meLISTEN[15] (formerly MeRadio) is an audio digital platform focusing on live audio streaming of Mediacorp's eleven radio stations as well as exclusive audio podcast features.[19]