Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. (; ) is the state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. It is currently headquartered at the Mediapolis development in Queenstown's one-north precinct, which succeeded Caldecott Hill, the long-time home of its predecessors, in 2015. As of 2022, Mediacorp employs over 3,000 employees; a large number of them are in both public and private sector broadcasting.
The company forms half of the mass media duopoly in the country alongside SPH Media Trust; the company was established in its current form in 1999, following the 1994 privatization of one of its predecessors—the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)—as a group of state-owned enterprises known as Singapore International Media.
Mediacorp holds a monopoly on terrestrial television in Singapore, operating six channels broadcasting in the official languages of English (5 and the pan-Asian news channel CNA), Mandarin Chinese (8 and U), Malay (Suria), and Tamil (Vasantham), as well as the streaming service meWatch. It also operates eleven radio stations, and the websites Today and 8days—both of which had previously operated as print publications.
Its monopoly on terrestrial television was briefly broken in the early-2000s by SPH MediaWorks. In 2004, amid struggles at its two channels, SPH sold the MediaWorks subsidiary to MediaCorp in exchange for stakes in its television and publishing businesses; only its Chinese-language Channel U would continue under MediaCorp. SPH divested its stake in MediaCorp in 2017 after Today ceased print publication.
History
The origins of Mediacorp lie down to the establishment in 1925 of the Marconi station 1SE (One Singapore Experimental). In 1933, Radio ZHI was launched as the first professional shortwave broadcasting station in Singapore, owned by the Radio Service Company of Malaya, though the station closed in December 1936 as it lacked a broadcast licence and franchise.
A more serious attempt at creating a radio station in Singapore emerged on 12 April 1935 with the creation of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, whose regular broadcasts began on 1 June 1936 and was granted the right to a monopoly over radio transmissions later that year. BMBC station ZHL was formally inaugurated on 1 March 1937. A second station on shortwave, ZHP, opened on 19 July 1938; its wider coverage enabled live carriage of sporting events. Government aid began in February 1939.
The corporation was taken over by the Straits Settlements government in 1940 as a part of the British Department of Information, subsequently nationalised and reorganised as the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (MBC),
During World War II, when the Japanese Imperial Army occupied Singapore from 1942 to 1945, the radio station on the island of Singapore was seized by the Japanese authorities and renamed Syonan Hoso Kyoku ('Light of the South' Broadcasting Corporation, 昭南放送局, known in English as the Syonan Broadcasting Station or SBS), the local counterpart to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). Broadcasts under the new administration started on 13 March 1942 and broadcast over three frequencies, one in medium wave for within Singapore, another to relay output from Tokyo and a shortwave frequency aimed at the time in Australia. After repairs, broadcasts officially started on 28 March. The station broadcast in the same mix of languages but adding Japanese content. During occupation, a confidential British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service (BFEBS) was carried out by the UK to its occupied territories, briefly having its offices at Caldecott Hill. The facilities were later used as a relay station for the BBC.
After the war, the British came back into power and reclaimed the radio station, with the station managed by the interim government – British Military Administration (BMA).
Two separate stations were introduced from 23 December 1945. The existing service was renamed Blue Network, carrying programming in English and Malay. The second service, the Red Network, carried content in Tamil, Hindustani and Chinese varieties.
On 1 April 1946, Radio Malaya Singapore and the Federation of Malaya (RMSFOM; or Radio Malaya), a short- and mediumwave service, was established in Singapore. Radio news and information, as well as local entertainment, were aired on its stations in English and later Mandarin Chinese and Malay. In June 1947, the BBC initiated a one-year takeover plan of the BFEBS; the plan was culminated on 8 August 1948. The Chinese output gained its own station on 1 January 1951, the Green Network. Radio Malaya left the Cathay building on 4 November 1951 at closedown.
On the basis of the Radio Malaya broadcasters that moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1958, Radio Singapura took over on 4 January 1959 as the radio service for Singapore, organised into a station each for English, Malay and Mandarin listeners, plus a dedicated time slot for Tamil speakers. Shortwave broadcasts commenced on 14 February 1960, consisting of relays of extant Radio Singapore output.
Shortly after Singapore reached self-government status on 3 June 1959, there were plans to obtain television transmission rights. This manifested the founding of Television Singapura on 4 April 1961. Test broadcasts took place on VHF channel 5 from 21 January to 15 February 1963, ahead of its first official pilot broadcast on the evening of 15 February 1963. Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam became the first person to appear on Singapore TV, announcing that "Tonight might well mark the start of a social and cultural revolution in our lives." The first programme aired was a documentary, TV Looks at Singapore. The pilot service would broadcast for one hour and 40 minutes nightly; at the time, it was estimated that only one in 58 Singaporeans owned a television.
On 2 April 1963, Channel 5 was officially inaugurated by Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore Yusof Ishak; the service expanded to 7:15 to 11:00 p.m. nightly. By September, its broadcast day had been lengthened to begin at 6:30 p.m. A second channel (Channel 8) started trial broadcasts on 31 August 1963, before starting its regular service on 23 November 1963. Television advertising started on 15 January 1964.
After the separation of Singapore from the Malaysian federation, its radio and television outlets merged to form Radio Television Singapore (RTS), a division of the Ministry of Culture. This led to expansions of the network, including a move to the new $3.6 million Television Centre at Caldecott Hill on 27 August 1966. The first colour test broadcasts took place on 2 May 1974, followed in July by its first live colour broadcast—the 1974 FIFA World Cup final.
The ability for RTS to grow was hampered by administrative and budgetary constraints, leading to frequent turnover in staff, and a reliance on imported programmes rather than domestic productions. In September 1979, an act was proposed in the Parliament of Singapore to separate RTS from the Ministry of Culture, and replace it with a new statutory body known as the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). The SBC was envisioned as an autonomous, state-owned enterprise akin to Singapore Airlines and comparable to the BBC in the United Kingdom and its neighbours' RTM and TVRI. The SBC Act was approved in parliament on 12 January 1980.
The government officially dissolved RTS on 31 January 1980 and transferred its assets to the SBC. SBC's programming did not change much following the transition; some viewers mockingly argued that "SBC" stood for "Same Boring Channel" or "si bei cham" ("damn terrible" in Hokkien). Some residents also felt its name was too similar to the Singapore Bus Service (SBS).
On 31 January 1984, SBC launched Channel 12, a new television service devoted to cultural programming, though other content such as sports would be added in its early years. On 1 January 1989, SBC launched two new radio stations: Perfect 10 (airing English contemporary hits for youth) and YES (airing Mandarin music). Two further radio services were announced in December 1989: 93.3 (airing Mandarin music) and a yet-unnamed MOR service (which would later become Class 95). The former was scheduled to launch on 1 January 1990, similar to Perfect 10 the year before. The MOR service, Class 95, started on 1 April 1990. "Ria" (airing popular Malay music) started later.
SBC announced on 21 February 1990 that it would begin NICAM stereo broadcasts by August that year, spending $3.5 million in the installation of the systems. Channel 5 began stereo broadcasting on 8 August 1990, the first programme in the new format being Countdown to National Day 90.
On 1 January 1994, Channel 5 moved its remaining Malay programming to Channel 12, and re-launched as an English-language channel. On the same day, AM radio broadcasts were cut without prior warning. Radio Singapore International (RSI) was launched on 1 February 1994 as its international service.
On 18 December 1991, the Minister of Information and the Arts George Yeo announced that the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation was to be privatised within a period of two years. Its three television channels would be placed under the control of "two or three companies" and the radio stations spun off to a separate company. There were already talks with foreign investors from Hong Kong and the United States regarding the possibility of allowing potential stakes in the new companies. The decision was delayed in March 1993 from year-end 1993 to year-end 1994 to allow for greater competition in the region and abroad.
On 1 October 1994, SBC was formally privatised into the new holding company Singapore International Media (SIM), with four business units: Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS, which controlled Channel 5 and 8), Radio Corporation of Singapore (RCS), Singapore Television Twelve (STV12, which controlled Channel 12) and SIM Communications (SIMCOM).
On 1 September 1995, Channel 8's Tamil programming moved to Prime 12—a relaunch of Channel 12 which focused on multilingual programming. TV12 also launched a UHF spin-off channel known as Premiere 12, which featured arts, culture, documentaries, children's, and sports programmes. In October 1995, TV12 was originally asked by the Singapore Broadcasting Authority to launch another classical music station in response to changes in RCS' 92.4, but later turned down due to the lack of funding from the authorities.
Mediacity, the holding's website, became operational in 1996. The new website offered information on TCS programmes and artistes and schedules for the TCS and STV12 channels.
In March 1998, George Yeo announced at the Parliament that RCS would launch three new radio stations later in the year NewsRadio 93.8, Inter FM and an unnamed financial radio station. On 1 June, it launched 1-On-One, a video on demand website for subscribers of the Singapore broadband network Singapore One. On 1 March 1999, TCS launched Channel NewsAsia (CNA), a local news channel. TCS launched its own film production studio Raintree Pictures on 1 August 1998.
On 15 June 1999, the Singapore International Media group of companies restructured as the Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp). The new name was created to avoid confusion with the Singapore Institute of Management. There were unfounded rumours of a merger between TCS and STV12, which were denied by Richard Tan.