MediaCorp TV Channel 8
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| MediaCorp TV Channel 8 | |
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| Launched | November 23, 1963 |
| Network | MediaCorp TV |
| 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 Broadcasting Centre |
| Formerly called | 第8波道 (Translation: The Eighth Frequency) (Until January 2005) |
| Sister channel(s) | Digital 8 |
| Website | http://8.mediacorptv.sg/ |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Analogue | Channel 8 (196.25 MHz) |
| Digital (DVB-T) | Channel 29 (538.00 MHz) |
| Cable | |
| StarHub CableTV | Channel 3 |
| IPTV over ADSL | |
| mio TV | Channel 3 |
MediaCorp TV Channel 8 (Chinese: 八频道, Before 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 TV Channel U.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 Minnan, 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 1984, its programmes transferred to other channels.
[edit] 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).
[edit] 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 of 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.
[edit] Programmes
See List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp TV Channel 8
[edit] Current Primetime Schedule
| 7:00pm | 7:30pm | 8:00pm | 8:30pm | 9:00pm | 9:30pm | 10:00pm | 10:30pm | 11:00pm | 11:30pm | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Love Blossoms I (心花朵朵开) | Chinese Language Challenge (华文智多星) | La Femme (绝对佳人) | News 8 at Ten (十点新闻) | Her Sense (女人香) | Honour And Passion (宝家卫国) | |||||
| Tuesday | The Record Challenge (奔向健力士) | Tuesday Report (星期二特写) | |||||||||
| Wednesday | Makan Kakis Go Malaysia (食足大马) | Celeb's A Cook (名厨大冻作) | Living Well (乐活有方) | ||||||||
| Thursday | King of Thrift 2 (Smart省钱王2) | I Am Perfect (我最完美) | Focus (焦点) | ||||||||
| Friday | Glamour Mum And The Dude (辣妈好时尚) | Follow Me To Glamour (绚丽登场) | Frontline (前线追踪) | ||||||||
| Saturday | Strange Tales Of Liao Zhai II (聊斋奇女子) | The Sheng Siong Show 2008 (缤纷万千在昇菘) | Simply Overseas 2 (异乡人。新鲜事2) | My Smart Healthy Baby (聪明健康乐宝宝) | Saturday Chinese Cinema 1 & 2 (Continued 2:30am) | ||||||
| Sunday | Strange Tales Of Liao Zhai II (聊斋奇女子) | Delicious Food All Over China 4 (美食大三通4) | The Young Warriors (少年杨家将) | ||||||||
comedies are in red; dramas are in blue; reality shows are in yellow; game shows are in beige; news programming/Info-Ed is in brown; Mini-Series/anthology series is in purple.
[edit] External links
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