MediaCorp Channel 8

MediaCorp Channel 8 or Channel 8 (Chinese: 8频道, Before January 1, 2005: 第八波道) is Singapore's 1st free-to-air Mandarin  television channel in Singapore. It is the first of two Singapore Mandarin over-the-air television channels in Singapore, with the other being MediaCorp Channel U.

It was created by Radio and Television Singapore(RTS) on 23 November 1963 as Singapore's only Chinese-medium channel. From 6 May 2001 to 31 December 2004, it serves as an alternative Chinese channel to SPH MediaWorks Channel U. After SPH Mediaworks and Mediacorp merged in 1 January 2005, it now serves as a complementary to MediaCorp Channel U.

Programming
Channel 8 officially began their broadcasting on 23 November 1963 as "Saluran 8 Television Singapura" and broadcasts in Chinese although the station also aired Tamil programmes at the time with the daily transmissions were subsequently extended to 5 hours on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends.

Its sister station Saluran 5 Television Singapura was launched on 2 April 1963 with a mix of Singapore English and Malay language programmes.

Following the separation from Malaysia Radio become Radio Singapura and television become Television Singapura. It was integrated to "Radio and Television of Singapore (RTS)". This led to many expansions including a move to the new $3.6 million Television Centre in Caldecott Hill on 27 August 1966.

Channel 8 begin colour television signal on 1 May 1974 and broadcast the first live colour telecast of the 1974 FIFA World Cup Final between West Germany and Netherlands via satellite on 7 July 1974.

Channel 8 was the first live colour television channel (along with Channel 5) to broadcast the National Day Parade in colour on August 9, 1974.

Channel 8 started their full-time colour broadcasts (along with Channel 5) on 1 November 1977.

Channel 8 was initiated on 1 February 1980 by the RTS which became Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) (Chinese: 新广第八波道).

Although its sister channel, Channel 5, became a full-fledged English channel on New Year's Day 1994 but Channel 8 continued broadcasting in Mandarin and Tamil until they commenced 24 hour broadcasts in 1995.

Channel 8 was the first channel to broadcast 24 hours a day on 1 September 1995 but Channel 5 commenced 24-hour broadcasts on September 29, 1995. At the same time, Tamil programmes were transferred to the newly renamed Prime 12 (now Vasantham).

Channel 8 was privatized on December 23, 2000 as TCS, along with STV12 became MediaCorp TV(Chinese: 新传媒电视第八波道).

Chinese language broadcasting
In the infancy of the channel, Singapore Mandarin programmes were acquired from stations in Hong Kong, Macau and the Republic of China which resulted in these programmes being broadcast in a variety of regional Singapore Mandarin dialects (such as Hong Kong Cantonese and Taiwanese with no dubbing in Mandarin. This anomaly ended on December 11, 1979 when the government began to forbid Singapore's electronic media from broadcasting programmes in any dialects other than Mandarin without prior consent from the Government.

This put a pressure on the station's budget, as Mandarin language programmes acquired overseas now have to be dubbed into Mandarin. As a result, SBC decided to begin producing Mandarin drama series domestically, and established the Singapore Mandarin 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 television programmes. Due to the closure of Commercial Television and the sale of Rediffusion Television (now Asia Television) and Television Broadcasts Limited in Hong Kong at the time, many production staff from those two television stations were hired, thus creating a basis for domestic Chinese drama series production.

Although there were earlier productions (mostly as Children's dramas and special telemovies made in colour, similar to their Malay and Tamil drama counterparts, Sandiwara and Naadaga Arangam, respectively), the channel considers Seletar Robbery to be its first-ever Singapore Mandarin drama production and considers the day of its premiere on July 24, 1982 to be the birth of Singapore Mandarin Drama Production in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Privatisation
The station, along with its sister stations TCS 5 (Chinese: 新视第五波道), were privatized on October 1, 1994 and became a part of the new Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) (Chinese: 新加坡电视机构) while Channel 12 (Chinese: 第十二波道) became a part of the newly established Television Twelve (TV12; later changed to Singapore Television Twelve in 1996). Further restructuring were made and by December 23, 2000, TCS became MediaCorp TV (Chinese: 新传媒电视).

Competition from MediaWorks
In an effort to inject competition into the Singaporean television broadcasting industry, the government allowed Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to operate television stations, which resulted in the establishment of SPH MediaWorks. It offered two television channels: SPH MediaWorks Channel U (Chinese: 优频道) and TV Works (Chinese: 电视通), which was later renamed Channel i (Chinese: 爱频道). It began recruiting artistes through its own talent search programme Route to Glamour and a number of former TCS artistes also transferred over.

MediaCorp Channel 8 was formerly known as the Eight Frequency 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 New Year's Eve on 2004 when Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew commented that Singapore's size cannot sustain more than one television station for each language. This spurred the two sides into a merger negotiation, which was completed in New Year's Eve on 2004. In New Year's Day on 2005, MediaCorp TV Channel U became a part of MediaCorp TV. SPH MediaWorks Channel i was disbanded in the merger process. The Eighth Frequency became MediaCorp TV Channel 8 (Chinese: 新传媒电视8频道).

8 On-Demand
StarHub TV and MediaCorp TV jointly launched a new channel "MediaCorp 8 On-Demand" (StarHub TV Channel 116) on December 28, 2011. StarHub TV customers enjoy viewing local dramas for a charge of $8.56/month. Latest dramas were put up on the channel for three months. If there is a need to, the channel will put up classic dramas and classic variety series, such as Comedy Night and Star Search.

The channel was removed on 9 January 2014.

Transmission times
Channel 8 is a 24 hours channel.

On 6:00am everyday, the Majulah Singapura (National Anthem) is played.

Programs broadcast by Channel 8 in January 2014
* ：Live Telecast 现场直播

Timeslot for weekdays:

3:30 pm to 4:30 pm → Mainland China Dramas or Silver Carnival on Thursdays or Golden Age Talentime 2013 on Fridays

4:30 pm to 5:30 pm → Long running Taiwan Dramas from Sanlih E-Television (SET)

5:30 pm to 6:30 pm → Rerun Dramas from Local 9 pm Drama

6:30 pm to 7:00 pm → Evening News

7:00 pm to 8:00 pm → Dramas either from Singapore and Malaysian productions, Hong Kong or Mainland China

8:00 pm to 9:00 pm → Variety

9:00 pm to 10:00 pm → Local Dramas

10:00 pm to 10:30 pm → News Tonight

10:30 pm to 11:00 pm → Informative Programs

11:00 pm to 12:00 am → Long running dramas from China or Taiwan

Good Morning, Singapore! (7:30am, Mon-Fri)

 * Desmond Lim Soo Guan (林树源)
 * Iriana Halim (林有懿)
 * Lim Yi Chyi (琪琪)
 * Wallace Ang (洪圣安)

Focus (10.30pm, Thurs)

 * Chun Guek Lay (曾月丽)

Former presenters

 * Janice Ng (黄双喜)
 * Xu Bing (徐冰) (Moved to Capital 95.8FM/958城市頻道)
 * Liang Ni (梁妮)
 * Serene Loo (吕诗琳)
 * Lynee Chee (徐赟玲) (Now assistant producer of Frontline)
 * Ng Siew Leng (黄秀玲)
 * Wang Zheng (王征) (Cross over to Channel News Asia as Shanghai correspondent)
 * Lin Zhi Ying (林稚瑛) (Now Channel News Asia Beijing correspondent)
 * Ng Kee Haur (黄志豪)
 * Carol Chiam (詹玉珍)
 * 蔡萦
 * Chew Huoy Min (周慧敏)
 * 施宏洲
 * 王连三
 * 黎学平
 * 陈婷
 * Wang Di Cong (王帝璁) (Moved to Capital 95.8FM/958城市頻道)

Programmes

 * List of MediaCorp Channel 8 Chinese Drama Series before 1982
 * List of MediaCorp Channel 8 Chinese Drama Series (2000s)
 * List of MediaCorp Channel 8 Chinese Drama Series (2010s)
 * List of variety and infotainment programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 8