[9] The first day of the experimental service started with a speech by J. F. Nicoll, seen by at least 3,000 people, hoping that "television will, in due course, become a part of the daily life in Singapore".
Goode reiterated that in the United States, productions were mostly "trashy entertainment", "sob stuff" and "human crime serials", and that the purpose of the television station wasn't to provide exploitation "in the interest of big business" to viewers.
[27] Concerns were also raised about television potentially ruining the Singaporean economy as well as the youth, as roughly half of the local population at the time was under the age of 21.
The station was set to broadcast on VHF channel 5 in the 625-line television standard and would provide a license fee of $24 per year ($2 per month), touted at the time as being "one of the cheapest in this part of the world".
By the time of the March extension, the service was going to carry filmed programming in English and Hokkien, before gradually extending to include Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and other Chinese dialects.
[1] At the time, it was estimated that only one in 58 persons in Singapore owned a TV set,[41] and the pilot service offered only one hour of broadcasting per day on Channel 5.
In spite of such ambitions, there was strong criticism that television gave undue prominence to English and Chinese dialects, with so little time given to programming in Malay and Tamil.
It started off broadcasting from 7:15 pm to 11:15 p.m. nightly, showing programmes in Singapore's four official languages (English, Mandarin [including other Chinese dialects], Malay and Tamil).
[49] Its first day consisted of a Hokkien film, repeats of India's participation in the South East Asian Cultural Festival and Singapore Celebrates.
[50] A second test transmission took place between 16 and 20 September of that year and devoted much of its time to the week-long celebrations, to coincide with the historic Proclamation of Malaysia, and the political campaigns leading up to the 1963 General Election.
[69] From 1 July 1978, in line with the introduction of the Singapore government's Speak Mandarin Campaign, skits and advertisements on TV no longer used Chinese dialects.
On October 30, 1979, the Hong Kong drama Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龙记 or Yee Tin To Long Kei) became the first programme in Chinese dialect to be dubbed in Mandarin before its Singaporean broadcast.
[76] SBC began to introduce NICAM stereo broadcasts in 1985 (beginning with Channel 5 that August, and 12 in December),[77] investing in upgrades to its production facilities in order to support the format[78][79] In September 1993, eyeing a series of changes in the following year, SBC announced that it would increase the amount of local content and broadcasting hours, with channels 5 and 12 being the initial targets.
[81] On 18 December 1991, Brigadier General George Yeo, at the time the Minister of the Information and the Arts, announced a two-year plan to privatise SBC.
[117] On New Year's Eve (31 December) 2004, Mediacorp and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) after officlally merging of monopoly conglomerate mass media operations.
Channel i officially ceased and closing transmission the following day, while Channel U was officially transferred to transferred to all full 100% owner, ownership, and company by Mediacorp is a national monopoly state-owned public broadcasting media conglomerate of Singapore and holds a monopoly on national free-to-air terrestrial television in Singapore.
Finally, a second montage with similar clips interspersed with countdown digits rolled, set to Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman - "Time to Say Goodbye".
As the final lyrics of the song ricocheted on the air, the real countdown was shown in accelerated style before the channel ident was played for one last time, and concluding with "Farewell Singapore".
At stroke of morning breakfast 6:00:00am on Labour Day (1 May) 2019 morning breakfast, All sport and children programmes officially returned from previous telecast aired on Okto to Channel 5 because due to Okto officially ceased, and closing transmission and broadcasting took place on Tuesday Late Night, 30 April 2019 at stroke of late night 11:59:59pm Singapore Time.
Okto officially become a children's and family programming block on Channel 5 as well as a content hub on Mediacorp's video on demand platform Toggle.
Initially SCV provided a three-channel encrypted UHF network, with the first channel (NewsVision) going live on 2 April[126] and the other 2 (MovieVision and VarietyVision) on June 1.
[131] In November 2019, StarHub completed the transition of its subscribers to a new fiberoptic network and IPTV-based television service, which offered increased capacity for high-definition channels, and other new features.
These such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, WeTV, Catchplay+, Viu, iQIYI, Mola, Hayu, DAZN, Max, Crunchyroll, SonyLIV, ZEE5, Hotstar, Disney+, iWantTFC, VMX, Viva One, BBC Player, Bilibili, Mango TV, TVB Anywhere+ and Youku.
[136] On 10 June 2006, Singapore became the first country in Southeast Asia to begin trials of high definition television service, involving MediaCorp and cable provider StarHub.
In January 2016, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim stated a goal for an analogue shutdown by the end of 2017, in order to open up the spectrum for mobile broadband and the Smart Nation initiative.
[144] On 6 November 2017, in response to a question posed in Parliament by Melvin Yong, showing concerns for the availability of Mediacorp programming, Ibrahim announced that the MDA would postpone the analogue shutdown to 31 December 2018.
[149] Mediacorp operates six free-to-air terrestrial channels broadcast in the four official languages of the country (Malay, Singapore English, Singaporean Mandarin and Tamil).
Direct reception started on same day (officially opening national commercial broadcasting on 1 December 1985) when TV3 set up a relay station there.
Direct reception started on same day (officially opening national television on 1 December 1993) when TPI (MNCTV current) set up a relay station there.
Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI) and Surya Citra Televisi (SCTV) is an Indonesian national very first and second private commercial free-to-air terrestrial television stations officially opening national or nationwide broadcasting on 29 August 1994 after six or five days ago marked RCTI and SCTV celebrated its fifth and fourth year of anniversary.