First Television Program in Singapore
The first program aired on the station's Channel 5, TV Looks at Singapore, was a 15-minute documentary exploring the role and potential impact of broadcast television in the lives of Singaporeans. This was followed by two cartoon clips, news in English including a five- minute newsreel, a half-hour comedy, and variety show Rampaian Malaysia (“Malaysian Mixture”) featuring English and Chinese songs, Indian dance and a Malay comic sketch. Subsequently, programs were broadcast in all four of Singapore's official languages (English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil) with a transmission duration of three-and-a-half hours each day. A second channel, Channel 8, was added in November and like Channel 5, it broadcast programs in all four official languages.
Basic Information About Singapore Television & Radio Development
The first television station in
Singapore,
Television Singapura, was launched on
15 February 1963. It merged with Radio Singapura to form
Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) following Singapore’s independence on
9 August 1965. On
1 February 1980, RTS was corporatized and renamed the
Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).
A television studio was specially built for this purpose, and a mobile camera relayed images via a closed-circuit link to several screens measuring 10 inches by 9 inches (25 cm by 23 cm). This was the second demonstration of television in Southeast Asia, the first having occurred a month earlier in Bangkok, Thailand.