Television Singapura/RTS

When the television service was announced in January 1963, a second channel broadcasting on Channel 8 was announced, slated to begin operations "between August and September, depending on conditions".^[1]

Channel 8 began its test transmissions on Saturday, 31 August 1963, Malaysia's national day (at the time known as Solidarity Day).^[2] Its first day consisted of a Hokkien film, repeats of India's participation in the South East Asian Cultural Festival and Singapore Celebrates.^[3] A second test transmission took place between 16 and 20 September of that year and devoted much of its time to the week-long celebrations, to coincide with the historic Proclamation of Malaysia, and the political campaigns leading up to the 1963 General Election.

Following a period where the channel only broadcast on "special occasions" (as noted above), Channel 8 officially began broadcasting on 23 November 1963 at 7:40 p.m. as "Saluran 8 Televisyen Singapura" and aired at first in Chinese (including Mandarin, dialects of Chinese and Cantonese) and Tamil, broadcasting daily for two and a half hours (closing at 10:10 p.m.), aiming to increase to the same hours as Channel 5 soon. Its sister station Saluran 5 Televisyen Singapura was launched on 2 April that year with a mix of shows in every language of Singapore at the time. The channel rebroadcast the main news from Channel 5 every day of the week except on Thursdays.^[4] Following the separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, Channel 8 became part of Television Singapore, and was later integrated as part of "Radio Television Singapore". This led to the expansions of the network, including a move to the new $3.6 million Television Centre in Caldecott Hill on 26 August 1966.^[5]

Channel 8 began broadcasting in colour on 1 May 1974. In 1978, all its Chinese language programming as well as advertisements, as a result of the government's Speak Mandarin Campaign, began to be broadcast solely in the Mandarin dialect. In the fall of 1982, Channel 8 debuted the country's pioneer Mandarin language drama series, Seletar Robbery. At first, Channel 8 drama productions used 16mm film, before transitioning to videotape in 1987–88, in contrast its variety programming (either live or taped) had always been videotape productions since the start of colour television. Beginning 1 August 1990, Channel 8 began airing in stereo all its Chinese and Tamil productions.

SBC 8

In January 1984, SBC 8 began airing local dramas two hours a week with the drama series The Awakening and added another hour later in September. An additional hour was added in March 1985, becoming four hours. SBC targeted to have five hours a week of local drama by August 1985. ^[6]

SBC 8 began airing local hour-long weekday drama series at 9:30 pm on 1 January 1987. The drama series would have twelve different titles airing each year.^[7]

In April 1987, SBC 8 replaced the magazine show Family Hour with the back-to-back drama slot One Plus One, due to stiff competition from Malaysia's TV2 and TV3 which air Cantonese dramas in the 7 pm hour. Family Hour and Live From Studio One merged to become Studio One Presents and air weeknights at 8:30 pm.^[8] One Plus One would be replaced by an hour-long drama slot in 1993.^[9]

SBC 8 extended its broadcasting hours on Sundays in 1988. ^[9]

SBC 8 gradually increased its broadcasting hours to six hours on Saturdays in January 1993 and three hours on weekdays in June 1993. Much of the expanded hours were filled with drama, children's programmes, game shows and documentaries. ^[9] A two-minute late evening news update was added on 1 January 1993. ^[9]

Channel 8

SBC 8 introduced new logo and on-air graphics in June 1994. From this period, SBC 8 would be known as Channel 8. The relaunch was meant to reinforce Channel 8 as the channel "for the HDB homeland". Along with the relaunch, the evening news bulletin moved to 10 pm and drama series were shown at 9 pm. The image song was written and sung by Singaporean twins, Paul and Peter Lee. In preparation for the relaunch, a two-hour special programme, Be A Part Of 8 aired on 28 May 1994, followed by special programmes through the night. Tamil viewers are treated with an Indian musical and an hour-long variety show the next day. The relaunch was promoted through mini-exhibitions and roadshows.^[10]

SBC 8's drama productions were 520 hours a year in 1994 compared to 20 hours a year in 1984. ^[11]

It started airing 24 hours a day on 1 September 1995, becoming a Mandarin-language only channel as all its Tamil programs were transferred to a new channel, Prime 12. It was privatised on 12 February 2001 as part of Mediacorp.

Channel 8 had a pay-to-view sister television channel named Channel 8i that existed from 19 November 2011 to 1 December 2016.