| MediaCorp Channel 8 | |
|---|---|
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| Channel 8 logo | |
| Launched | November 23, 1963 |
| Network | MediaCorp |
| Owned by | MediaCorp |
| Picture format | PAL 576i(SDTV) 4:3 |
| Slogan | 最亲切 (Translation: The Most Caring) |
| Country |  Singapore |
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | Caldecott Broadcast Centre |
| Formerly called | 第8波道 (Translation: The Eighth Frequency) (Until 1 January 2005) |
| Sister channel(s) | Digital 8 |
| Website | http://8.mediacorptv.sg/ |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| MediaCorp -Analogue | Channel 8 (196.25 MHz) |
| MediaCorp -Digital (DVB-T) | Channel 29 (538.00 MHz) |
| Cable | |
| StarHub TV | Channel 3 |
| MediaCorp (via SCV TV socket) | Channel 8 (196.25 MHz) |
| IPTV | |
| mio TV | Channel 3 |
MediaCorp Channel 8 (Chinese: 八频道, Before 1 January 2005: 第八波道) is a Mandarin Chinese general entertainment television channel in Singapore. It is one of the two Mandarin Chinese over-the-air television channel in Singapore, the other being MediaCorp Channel U.
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History
The station first went on air on 23 November 1963 as Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) Eighth Frequency (Simplified Chinese: 新广第八波道). Until 1984, programming on the Eighth Frequency consist of a mixture of Tamil and Chinese programming, with a majority of the programmes bought from foreign TV stations.
Colour programming began in 1976.
Chinese Language Broadcasting
In the infancy of the station, Chinese programmes were acquired from stations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which resulted in these programmes being broadcast in a variety of regional Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese and Min Nan, with no dubbing in Mandarin. This anomaly ended in 1979, when the government began to forbid Singapore's electronic media from broadcasting its Chinese programmes in any dialects other than Mandarin without prior consent.
This put a pressure on the station's budget, as Chinese programmes acquired overseas now have to be dubbed into Mandarin. As a result, the SBC decided to begin producing Chinese drama series domestically, and established a Chinese Drama Department (华文戏剧部) towards that end. The new department had to hire many production staffs overseas, as the station only had experience in producing short TV programmes. Due to the closure of Commercial Television and the sale of Rediffusion Television (now Asia Television) in Hong Kong at the time, many production staff from those two TV stations were hired, thus creating a basis for domestic Chinese drama series production.
Although there were earlier productions, the station considers Seletar Robbery to be its first-ever Chinese drama production, and considers the day of its premiere: 24 July 1982, to be the birth of Singaporean Chinese drama production.
Tamil broadcasting were completely phased out of the station's schedules by 1994, its programmes transferred to other channels.
Privatisation
The station, along with its sister stations Fifth Frequency and Twelfth Frequency, were privatized in 1994, and became the Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS (Chinese: 新加坡电视机构). Further restructuring were made, and by 2001, TCS became MediaCorp (Chinese: 新传媒).
Competition from MediaWorks
In an effort to inject competition into the Singaporean television broadcasting industry, the government allowed Singapore Press Holdings to operate television stations, which resulted in the establishment of SPH MediaWorks and its two television channels: Channel U (Chinese: 优频道) and TV Works (Chinese: 电视通), which was later renamed Channel i (Chinese: i频道).
Channel 8 and Channel U were both locked in a fierce ratings battle, with each station releasing statistics indicating that they are prevailing over the other station. The ratings battle began to cool in 2004, when Lee Kuan Yew commented that Singapore's size cannot sustain more than 1 TV station for each language. This spurred the two sides into a merger negotiation, which was completed by December 2004, whereby Channel U will join MediaCorp as its second Chinese TV station.
The merger took effect on New Year's Day of 2005, with Channel i being the only casualty of the competition.
Newscasters
Current
- Zhang Hai Jie 张海洁 (From SPH Channel U/U频道)
- Huang Xiu Lin 黄秀林
- Wang Zheng 王征
- Lin Qi Yuan 林启源
- Qi Qi 琪琪 ( From SAFRA 883FM)
- Wu Lei 吴磊 (From Mediacorp Channel U/U频道)
- Lin Shu Yuan 林树源
- Lin You Yi 林友谊 (From SAFRA 883FM)
Left MediaCorp
- Huang Shuang Xi 黄双喜
- Xu Yun Ling
Left Channel 8
- Xu Bin 徐彬 (Went Capital 958FM/958城市频道)
- Serene Loo 吕诗琳 (Went Mediacorp Channel U/U频道)
- Dong Shu Hua 董淑华 (From Mediacorp Channel U/U频道)
Programmes
See List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 8
External links
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