Channel 5 is an English-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel primarily airs general entertainment and news programming in the English language.
The channel began broadcasting on 15 February 1963 as the pilot service TV Singapura, the region's first television service. It officially launched on 2 April 1963. It initially broadcast programming in the official languages of English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil; Chinese and Tamil programming were later spun off to the newly-established Channel 8 in August 1963, and Malay programming moved to Channel 12 (now Suria) in 1994, leaving Channel 5 as an English-language service.
History
Television Singapura/RTS
On January 3, 1963, the Singaporean government announced the start of pilot programming effective February 15. The station was set to broadcast on VHF channel 5 in the 625-line television standard and would provide a license fee of $24 per year ($2 per month), touted at the time as being "one of the cheapest in this part of the world". The output from the start of the pilot service was going to last less than two hours, before extending to four hours by April. A second channel was slated to start between August and September of the same year. By the time of the March extension, the service was going to carry filmed programming in English and Hokkien, before gradually extending to include Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and other Chinese dialects. The regular service would provide, effective April, a four-hour schedule in the official languages of Singapore. A temporary studio was built on Caldecott Hill in the precints of Radio Singapore and a television transmitter at Bukit Batok was erected. The staff consisted of experienced workers coming from the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. Ahead of the start of the pilot service, it was recommended for manufacturers of television sets to ensure that their presets would match Channel 5 and Channel 8.
The channel first launched as a pilot service, TV Singapura, on 15 February 1963. Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam introduced its inaugural night of programming, which included the documentary TV Looks at Singapore, imported cartoons and comedy programmes, the Malay variety show Rampaian Malaysia (Malaysian Medley), and news. Rajaratnam stated that "tonight might well mark the start of a social and cultural revolution in our lives." The pilot service would broadcast 100 minutes of programmes per-night. At the time, it was estimated that only one in 58 persons in Singapore owned a television set.
While many viewers found television as a source of entertainment, the real purpose of the new service was a mere tool against supporters of communism who were against Singapore's merger with Malaysia. The first newsreader on launch night was Steven Lee, while the first newsreel (Berita Singapura) was read by Harry Crabb, who later appeared in the regular bulletins. The news division was assisted by Australian David Prior, who trained train locals in the field of television journalism. At the time, it was projected that Prior would stay with TV Singapura for two years. Continuity announcers were also a central part of the staff, primarily appearing at start-up and at closedown delivering the schedule. Among the initial set of announcers were Mildred Appaduray (English), Kamala Dorai (Tamil), Hsu Fong Lim (Mandarin) and Zaiton Haji Mohamed (Malay).
On 2 April 1963, the channel was formally inaugurated by President Yusof Ishak as TV Singapura Channel 5. It expanded its broadcast day to four hours per-night, broadcasting from 7:15 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. SGT in the four official languages. By the time of the launch of the regular service, TV sets were now available in 7000 households, per a Straits Times survey. A bespoke "second" channel opened on AM radio (1370 KHz) in June providing a second audio track for selected programming.
On 31 August 1963, a second channel, Channel 8, began test broadcasts, which would carry Chinese and Tamil-language programming, leaving Channel 5 focused on English and Malay programming.
In January 1964, Channel 5 and 8 became regional affiliates of TV Malaysia. Television advertising started on 15 January the same year. Following Singapore's separation from Malaysia, Channel 5 and Channel 8 became part of the new state broadcaster Radio Television Singapore, and was subsequently rebranded as RTS Channel 5. The first post-independence Grand Prix was held in Singapore was carried by the channel. Both channels moved to Television Centre on Caldecott Hill on 26 August 1966. As late as that period, the RTS channels were still known in some way as TV Singapura.