Mediacorp
 | |
Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment Mass media Interactive media Media consultancy Outdoor advertising |
| Founded | 1936 (1936) (radio) 1963 (1963) (television) |
| Headquarters | Mediacorp Campus ,1 Stars Avenue , Singapore 138507 |
Area served | Singapore |
Key people | Chiam Hui Ru (Chairman) Chiam Teck Soo (CEO)[1] |
| Owner | Temasek Holdings |
| Subsidiaries | Mediacorp TV Singapore Pte Ltd Mediacorp Press Ltd Mediacorp VizPro International Pte Ltd Mediacorp Raintree Pictures Pte Ltd Singapore Media Academy Media Research Consultants Pte Ltd OOH Media Pte Ltd 1-Net Singapore Pte Ltd |
| Website | www.mediacorp.sg |
Mediacorp is a media conglomerate based in Singapore. It holds interests in radio, television, digital, print publishing and filmmaking. It runs 7 television channels and 11 radio stations, making it the largest media business in Singapore; it holds a monopoly on free-to-air television in Singapore. It is owned by Temasek Holdings, a state-owned investment arm.[2]
Contents
1 History
1.1 1936–1961: Beginnings in radio
1.2 1965–1980: Radio Television Singapore
1.3 1980–1994: Singapore Broadcasting Corporation
1.4 1994–1999: Privatisation
1.5 1999–2008: Media Corporation of Singapore
1.6 2008–present: Broadcasting on DTT
2 Radio
3 Television
4 Toggle
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
History
1936–1961: Beginnings in radio
Mediacorp was initially founded as the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, which was awarded a broadcasting license by the British crown in 1936. 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. On the basis of the Radio Malaya broadcasters that moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1958, Radio Singapore took over the year after as the State radio service, with 3 radio stations (each airing in English, Mandarin and Malay).
Shortly after Singapore reached self-government status in 1959, there were plans to obtain television transmission rights. This manifested the founding of Television Singapura in 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. From 3 April, it regularly broadcast in English and Malay. On 23 November of the same year, a second channel was launched as Channel 8, airing mainly in Mandarin and Tamil.
Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Talivishen Malaysia (new Malay orthography: Televisyen Malaysia) began broadcasting on 28 December in time for the New Year celebrations. Television Singapura was subsequently rebranded as sister channel "Television Malaysia (Singapura)" to coincide with the formation of Malaysia in September of that year. The first advertisement was aired on 1 January 1964 to reduce the station's reliance on government funding.
1965–1980: Radio Television Singapore
After the separation of Singapore from the Malaysian federation, all of the Malaysian television and radio operations in Singapore were joined together to become the Radio and Television of Singapore (RTS). RTS was officially dissolved in 31 January 1980 and its assets transferred to the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation.
1980–1994: Singapore Broadcasting Corporation
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 the same year, SBC celebrated its 30 years of television broadcasting. On 7 June, channel 8 expanded its airtime on weekdays, from 3:00 pm until closedown. On 1 December, SBC launched a satellite television network named Singapore International Television (SITV).
1994–1999: Privatisation
On 1 October 1994, 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).
Channel 8 began airing 24 hours a day on 1 September 1995. On the same day, STV12 renamed channel 12 as Prime 12, which was focused on multilingual programming in Malay, Tamil, English, and foreign languages; also, it launched a new channel called Premiere 12, which was centred in niche programming such as sports, arts, culture, documentaries and kids' series. Whilst, 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 broadcast 24 hours a day, starting from 29 September 1995.
TCS launched its own film production studio Raintree Pictures[3] on 1 August 1998. Singapore International Media (SIM) was shut down on 1 January 1999 and replaced by Media Corporation of Singapore, or MediaCorp for short.
1999–2008: Media Corporation of Singapore
On 1 March 1999, Mediacorp launched Channel NewsAsia (CNA) as its first news network, broadcasting as an analogue, free-to-air channel.
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 timeshared networks. SportCity, a sports channel, was also launched on the same year.
Mediacorp's television monopoly was broken in 6 May 2001 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 TV Works, which was later renamed to Channel i. At the same time, MediaCorp was granted the license to distribute the daily tabloid Today. To stop further economic losses due to competition with each other, SPH agreed to be merged with Mediacorp on 17 September 2004. It was legally completed on 31 December of that year, creating the new holding company MediaCorp Television Broadcasting Arm, which would manage and operate the remaining channels. Channel i was later closed down due to low ratings.
On 1 January 2007, HD5 was launched and Channel 5 became the first DTT station in Singapore to broadcast in HD. MediaCorp also launched MOBTV, an online television service. Its radio division was forced to block users from the United States due to royalty rates imposed by the US Copyright Royalty Board.
On 19 October 2008, Central's three timeshared networks were divided into two independent channels: the kids and arts programming blocks were replaced by Okto, whilst Vasantham took over the Vasantham Central block.
2008–present: Broadcasting on DTT
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.[4] On 30 September, Mediacorp shut down its Teletext service,[5] whist on 16 December, all MediaCorp free-to-air channels on DTT were upgraded to DVB-T2.[6]
On May 2015, Okto and CNA started airing in HD. On 8 December, Mediacorp opened its new offices in Buona Vista.[7][8]
Television programming were then terminated on analogue signals from midnight of 2 January 2019.
Radio
Mediacorp offers eleven FM radio channels.[9]The company's digital audio broadcasting service was discontinued on 1 December 2011.[10]
Frequency | Station | Language | Format |
| 89.7 MHz | Ria 89.7FM | Malay | Top 40 (CHR) |
| 90.5 MHz | Gold 90.5FM | English | Classic hits |
| 92.4 MHz | Symphony 924 | English | Classical |
| 93.3 MHz | Y.E.S. 93.3FM | Chinese | Top 40 (CHR) |
| 93.8 MHz | 938Now | English | Talk radio |
| 94.2 MHz | Warna 94.2FM | Malay | News, infotainment |
| 95.0 MHz | Class 95FM | English | Adult contemporary |
| 95.8 MHz | Capital 95.8FM | Chinese | Talk radio |
| 96.8 MHz | Oli 96.8FM | Tamil | Infotainment |
| 97.2 MHz | Love 97.2FM | Chinese | Easy listening |
| 98.7 MHz | 987FM | English | Top 40 (CHR) |
Television
Mediacorp offers 7 channels, with at least one channel servicing a specific race or demographic in Singapore.
Channel | Language | Format |
| Suria | Malay | Malay News, Entertainment & Dramas |
| Channel 5 | English | English News, Entertainment, Culture, Arts & Dramas |
| Channel U | Mandarin | Chinese News, Entertainment & Dramas |
Channel 8 | ||
| Vasantham | Tamil | Tamil News, Entertainment & Dramas |
| Channel NewsAsia | English | News & Current Affairs |
| Okto | English | Kids, Youth & Sports |
Toggle
Toggle was launched on 1 April 2015 as an OTT service.[11][12][13]
See also
- Broadcasting in Singapore
- Censorship in Singapore
- List of Singaporeans
- Media of Singapore
- Singapore Broadcasting Corporation
- Television Corporation of Singapore
- List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 5
- List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel U
- Category:Singapore Chinese dramas
References
^ "New Mediacorp CEO is Shaun Seow". Channel News Asia. Retrieved 7 July 2011..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "Telecommunications, Media & Technology". Temasek Corporate Website English. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
^ "Raintree Pictures". 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
^ "Channel NewsAsia relaunches". 21 January 2013. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
^ "Teletext to end service this month". TODAYonline. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
^ "All MediaCorp TV channels now available in digital broadcast". Channel News Asia. 16 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
^ MediaCorp to move to Buona Vista
^ "Broadcasts, Dramas and Dreams... Caldecott Hill in 80 Years". RemSG. April 16, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
^ Digital radio from MediaCorp to cease - Channel NewsAsia
^ Shah, Kyle Malinda (1 April 2015). "Goodbye Xinmsn, Hello Toggle: Microsoft & MediaCorp Disband Entertainment Site". Yahoo. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
^ "TOGGLE". Mediacorp. Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
^ Lawler, Ryan (28 January 2013). "MediaCorp Taps Tvinci To Launch Toggle, Its Virtual Cable Service In Singapore". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
External links
- Mediacorp Official Website
