8TV (Malaysia)
| 8TV 八度空间 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Launched |
1 July 1995 (as MetroVision.) 8 January 2004 (as 8TV) |
| Owned by | Media Prima Berhad |
| Picture format | 576i (4:3/16:9) |
| Audience share | 6% (Sept 2013[1], ) |
| Slogan |
We're different Chinese: 我们是不同的 (2004-2010) |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Sister channel(s) |
TV3 ntv7 TV9 |
| Website |
www |
Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Analogue | Channel 27/ Channel 58 (UHF) (Klang Valley) |
| myFreeview (Malaysia) | Channel 108)[2][3][4] |
| Satellite | |
| Astro (Malaysia) | Channel 708 |
| NJOI (Malaysia) | Channel 708[5] |
| IPTV | |
| HyppTV | Channel 108[6] |
| Streaming media | |
| Live Streaming (Malaysia only) |
www |
8TV (Chinese: 八度空间; pinyin: Bādù Kōngjiān; literal: 8th dimension) is a free-to-air private television station in Malaysia. The television channel targets the urban youth and Chinese audience demographics. 8TV's line up consists of dramas, sitcoms, and reality shows either produced in Malaysia or imported from other countries, mainly in the English and Chinese languages. 8TV broadcasts with the concept of "one station, two channels" in two languages shifts: 8TV in English and 八度空间 (pinyin: Bādù Kōngjiān) in Chinese.
8TV is also available on Astro channel 708, and through channel 108 on HyppTV.
History
8TV was launched on 1 July 1995 as MetroVision. It was managed by City Television Sdn Bhd, part of the Melewar Group (controlled by the Negeri Sembilan royal family) and broadcasts from Shah Alam. It was first available only in Klang Valley, Seremban, parts of Pahang and Malacca, but later expanded to Kedah and Johor, thus allowing Singaporean viewers to access it. Viewers were required to install fish-bone antennas to receive this channel.[7]
MetroVision's logo resembled the infinity sign - which is the number 8 rotated 90 degrees.[8] Nevertheless, Malaysian viewers name it as TV4 as it was the fourth free-to-air television channel. It was first broadcast in Malay language with original transmission hours from 9am to midnight.
Resulting from the Asian financial crisis and intense competition from other channels (especially ntv7 which launched in 1998), MetroVision quietly closed on 1 November 1999. The operator promised to re-open the channel in March 2000 after a supposed "signal upgrade" but it failed to materialise.[9]
Programmes broadcast
The following are programmes currently or previously broadcast on 8TV. Although English, Malay, and Chinese languages are spoken in the channel, only Mandarin Chinese is used in all of its news broadcasts. There was also a short-lived Malay news broadcast that was available in the channel's early years. TV series that had been broadcast may be repeated on the channel a year or two later, with the exception of those produced by TVB. According to an announcement by Tonton - Media Prima's online portal service - a programme reschedule was implemented on 1 April 2016, with almost all programmes shown were Chinese on Saturdays to Tuesdays, while English programmes retain their time slots as usual on Wednesdays to Fridays, after 8TV Express.
The rescheduling also includes a 3-hour morning home shopping block brought in part by Korean conglomerate CJ Group titled CJ Wow Shop which had also been introduced across other Media Prima channels, some more affected by the changes (especially NTV7 and TV9). However, this block has attract huge criticism on social media as a large part of daytime schedule has been replaced by CJ Wow Shop, which these slots had been previously running mostly reruns, religious programming and kids programming.[10][11] The programme was initially broadcast in Malay on the channel like its sister channel before being broadcast in Mandarin beginning 8 January 2017 onwards.[12]
Foreign programmesThese are programmes currently or previously broadcast during the 8TV English period, mostly at night, especially midnight or early in the morning.
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Local programmesThis includes the best of locally produced Chinese programmes and 8TV English programmes.
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Asian programmesThese programmes come at different timeslots, depending on their programme type. They are from China, Hong Kong, South Korea (includes Best of Korea Hanbok segment that broadcasts on Thursdays and Fridays in 2015), Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.
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Best of Hokkien (series imported from Taiwan)These are Hokkien-language programmes made by Taiwan studios that are mostly edited to fit in the one-hour period of the channel broadcast. There are three different timeslots for the segment: 11:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Best of the East (Chinese and formerly included Korean drama series)They are series produced by Chinese TV studios (mostly mainland) and South Korean TV studios (known as Korean drama); their timeslot is set at 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday.[14][15]
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Best of the East (Korean Selection)Starting April 2016, the Korean drama slot is broadcast separately at 9:30 p.m., instead of 8:30 p.m.
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Live telecasts
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Chinese New Year campaigns
As a Chinese-oriented TV channel, 8TV broadcasts more Chinese programmes and movies in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations every year. For the same purpose, the channel also distributes its Chinese New Year singles discography alongside its sister channel NTV7 and sister radio channel OneFM in competition with rival TV company, Astro since 2011. It had previously release and distributed its Chinese New Year singles on its own from 2009 to 2010.
Beginning from 2015 onwards, 8TV, OneFM and NTV7 release and distribute their Chinese New Year singles yearly together with their own themes, theme songs and mascots based on the 12 animal zodiac as well as its related merchandise (e.g. soft toys). In addition, the discography team responsible also tour across the nation to promote their discography and its merchandise. The CDs are also sold on shelves of all Popular Bookstore CD Rama kiosks nationwide during the festive season.
Furthermore, 14-second fortune predictions for each of all 12 Chinese Zodiacs are also screened occasionally as bumpers before and after commercials during the Chinese programming slots a few days before Chinese New Year and the first ten days of the celebrations which are then replaced by Chinese New Year greetings during the last five days of the celebrations leading up to the Lantern Festival. But in 2017, the zodiac fortune predictions bumper screening period was shortened to only ten days of which eight of those are during Chinese New Year Celebrations and was replaced by normal ones afterwards.[16][17]
- 2009: 8TV Happy Chinese New Year.
- 2010: 8面威风全星颂 (bā miàn wēi fēng Quán xīng sòng, English: All stars sing and make a magnificent appearance).
- 2011: 阖家团圆一起发-178 (Hé jiā tuányuán yī qǐ fā- yī qǐ bā, English: Family prospers together in reunion - 178) - "178" being a wordplay on the phrase "一起发".
- 2012: 阖家团圆一起发2012 (Hé jiā tuányuán yī qǐ fā- Èr líng yī'èr, English: Family prospers together in reunion - 2012).
- 2013: 阖家团圆一起发2013 (Hé jiā tuányuán yī qǐ fā- Èr líng yīsān, English: Family prospers together in reunion - 2013).
- 2014: 意气风发庆团圆 (Yìqìfēngfā qìng tuányuán, English: Spirited Reunion).
- 2015: 样样都好 Very Goat (Yàng yàng dōu hǎo Very Goat, English: Everything is good Very Goat) - a pun on the words "good" and "goat". The year's mascot as mentioned in the eponymous theme song is named Wei Li Yang, the Goat (威力羊 WēilìYáng, literally the power goat), coincidentally has a similar pronunciation as the phrase "Very Good".[18]
- 2016: 满吉 ，Go Lucky (Mǎn jí, Go Lucky, English: Full of Auspicious, Go Lucky) - "满吉" (Mǎn jí, literally Full of Auspicious) being similar in pronunciation with the word "Monkey". The mascot of that year's celebratory eponymous theme song is also named as such as "Manji the monkey".
- 2017: 一起发过肥年 (Yīqǐ fāguò féi nián, English: Prosper together in the new year) - The year's mascot is a Rooster named Fa Zi (发仔 Fā zǐ, literally Kid of Prosper), being similar in pronunciation with the word "发财" (Fā cái, literally Prosper) when pronounced in Cantonese. That year's New Year Campaign had introduced a mobile phone game application dubbed the Haha meter which is available on both iOS and android. The application enables the user to edit and send E-cards to people, keep updated with TV programmes and play the games that are available inside the application.[19][20]
References
- ↑ "Financial & Business Review for the 9 Month Period Ended 30 September 2013" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
- ↑ "MYTV statement on Facebook (Malay)". 13 May 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
- ↑ "MYTV Broadcasting Digital TV Trial". 6 June 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
- ↑ "Event for 6 June 2017". The EDGE Markets. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ↑ "Channels - TV, Radio dan Prabayar (official list of all channels available on NJOI)".
- ↑ "HyppTV TV Guide(includes the LCN number of each channel)".
- ↑ "MetroVision Tune in guide". Archived from the original on 6 December 1998.
- ↑ "MetroVision - intro (Sultan Abu Samad building version - 1995)". Retrieved 31 October 2016.
- ↑ "Meredah zaman suram". Utusan Online (in Malay). Utusan Malaysia. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ↑ Sofyan Rizal Ishak (1 April 2016). "CJ WOW SHOP mula 1 April" (in Malay). Harian Metro. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ↑ "TV3 Malaysia". facebook.com. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ↑ Vivienne Tay (6 January 2017). "CJ Wow Shop aims to grow Chinese audiences with new Mandarin content". Marketing Interactive. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ↑ 8TV Chinese New Year 2012
- ↑ https://plus.google.com/+BudieyIsma/posts (22 December 2012). "Program Menarik di 8TV Sepanjang Disember 2012".
- ↑ https://plus.google.com/+BudieyIsma/posts (29 December 2012). "Senarai Program Menarik di 8TV Sempena Tahun Baru 2013".
- ↑ "one FM、ntv7 以及八度空间 《样样都好VERY GOAT！》庆羊年 1219热腾腾上架".
- ↑ "178《满吉Go Lucky》1211全马上架".
- ↑ "Media Prima Launches CNY Campaign".
- ↑ "林明祯助阵《一起发过肥年》".
- ↑ "(HIBURAN) Media Prima Chinese New Year campaign – rosperity for all this Year of the Rooster!".
- Metrovision first day schedule, 1 July 1995 on the New Straits Times
- 1990s MetroVision ident featuring the Sultan Abdul Samad Building
External links
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| New Straits Times Press | |
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Chinese-language television in Southeast Asia | |
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The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese | |
 Brunei | |
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 Indonesia |
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