MediaCorp

MediaCorp (Chinese: 新传媒; Xīn Chuán Méi) is a group of commercial media companies in Singapore.

Milestones

• 1 June 1936, it was started as the first radio station in Singapore. It started a TV service in 15 February 1963. 2 April, regular TV services was launch on Channel 5. On 23 November the same year, the second channel, Channel 8, was launch. Channel 5 shows some of the English and Malay programme while the Channel 8 shows some of the Chinese and Tamil programme.
• 1966, Old broadcast house moved to current TV studio at Caldecott Hill. Old broadcast house was redeveloped into drama street scene.
• 1974, it started a colour television service.
• 1984, it launched the TV12 channel, and in 1994, had them separated into Prime 12 and Premiere 12.
• 1990, SBC launched Stereo on all TV channels.
• 1995, Channel 5 and 8 started 24-hour broadcasts.
• 1997, Channel 8 productions were exported to the Taiwanese cable market via TCSI (TCS International), a cable network in Taiwan. Popular serials included Fann Wong's Return of the Condor Heroes.
• 1999, it started Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the world and local news channel, which can also be seen on Asia Cable TV.
• 2000, Prime 12 and Premiere 12 were renamed to Suria and Central respectively. That year, it launched SportCity(later rename CityTV on 2001) for all sports programmes, which ceased transmission in 2002 due to the regional economic slowdown.
• 2001, TVMobile started operation and it became the world's first outdoor digital TV system, broadcasting on some 1500 SBS Transit buses.
• 2004, to prevent further economic losses, MediaCorp and SPH decided to merge their free television and free newspaper operations.
• 31 December 2004, MediaCorp and SPH announces that the merger is legally completed, thereby creating the new holding company, MediaCorp TV Holdings Pte Ltd, which now owns Channel 5, Channel 8, TVMobile and Channel U.
• 1 January 2005, Channel U (Previously under SPH MediaWorks Ltd, a subsidiary of SPH) joins MediaCorp.