Channel 8 (Singala)

Japanese (main version; 30th April 1962-30th January 1997, subtitles; 30th April 1962-present)

### Picture format

4:3 SDTV (1962-2019)
16:9 HDTV (2009-present)

## History

### Launched

April 30, 1962; 61 years ago (1962-04-30) (TV Asahi Singala)
February 1, 1997; 26 years ago (1997-02-01) (Channel 8)

### Closed

January 31, 1997; 26 years ago (1997-01-31) (TV Asahi Singala)

### Former names

Singaliese Educational Television (30th April 1962-November 1971)
SET総合駅 (November 1971-31st March 1977)
TV Asahi Singala (April 1st 1977-January 31st 1997)

## Links

### Website

Example

**Channel 8** (Chinese: 8频道; Japanese: 8チャンネル, styled as **M8**, formerly known as **TV Asahi Singala** (Japanese: テレビ朝日シンガラ)) is an Singaliese Cantonese/Mandarin language TV network owned by Mediacorp.

The channel formerly operated over an callsign SAEX-TV. The callsign license was revoked in 2000 when Channel 8 became an free-to-air nationwide channel.

## History

### Early years

#### Singaliese Educational Television/SET総合駅 (30th April 1962-31st March 1977)

In 1962, Channel 8 in Singala was launched as Singaliese Educational Television (shortened as SET to not confuse with the genre). Back then, Ash Yoshimoto had no idea on many jobs about making Singaliese yen, however he stated that Japan had an Japanese educational TV channel and he had an way to cooperate with the owner of the channel. He then partners with Toei, the owner of the channel, to launch a channel that were heavily based of the Japanese channel. The channel had their very first broadcast at 9am SST, offering 6 hours of programming under an entertainment and educational channel, thus Toei also had their movie rights to air on the channel. At the time, the channel stated that it had been reached 50+ people that owned a TV set.

The first programme in the first Singaliese Japanese cultural free-to-air channel was **Japan Spices**, it was followed by educational programmes on **Educational Time**, trending places and chic in Japan on **Hot Picks**, J-pop music on **J-pop Unleashed**, Yoshimoto talks about Japan in **Yoshimoto Talks**, a Toei movie-time designated show **Panda and the Magic Serpent**, an programme where Yoshimoto talks with pioneers in Japan and Singala on **Yoshimoto Talks with Pioneers** and Japanese animals on **Japanese Wild Cats**. The channel officially end of the day signed off at 3pm with **The Final Program of SET** which aired at 2:45pm, then a ident leading to the sign-off.

As stated by Ash Yoshimoto, the channel's launch was gonna be a success due to their market is suitable for 300+ Singaliese people, including travelers from Japan; the population of the channel made it an success. By June of the same year, Singaliese Educational Television added additional 4 hours to their timeslot, in fact the channel was now ending on 7:00pm SST. On the same day, the person that he was known for operating the upcoming TV Malaysia Singala channel took 40% ownership of the channel, while Yoshimoto took 5% and Toei took 55%. The schedule from today after 2:45pm as follows:

In 1964, Singaliese Educational Television started to focus into general programming fully, and stated that to exclude all educational programming. During the same year, Toei left the channel and it's influences on the TV channel was replaced with Asahi Shimbun.

During the change from educational programming to full general programming, the channel stated that it started to air foreign films, replacing most of Toei's film timeslots. However, the channel's premiere of *Good Morning Shinma* in the first year of the change of programming resulted in a trend that led to other networks adding their own daytime talk-show programming, it was the first Singaliese programming to follow the format. In 1966, *Hometown Love* (Japanese: *ふるさと愛*) had the channel's half ratings during the finale, thus the success of the series led the channel's adjust their ratings to be aimed at single or married females.

Despite being an entertainment channel full-time, it stated that they also sometimes air educational programming during the limited-hours each morning. In 1967, the channel stated that it had launched Minkyokyo to strengthen the production of educational productions. In May of the same year, they started to broadcast color TV outside films, and scheduled to complete color TV broadcast expansion by 1969. However, in 1970, Singaliese Educational Television, at the time broadcasting entertainment and educational productions changed it's target audience from females to be family-oriented just to be like the American Public Broadcasting Service.

In November 1971, **Singaliese Educational Television** became **SET総合駅**, however the name intended it's general programming. However, they still aired educational programming until sometime between 1972/1973, when the goverment revised their rules about how TV channels in Singala operate, the one thing was about abolishing educational television broadcasting, the change made the refocus complete by 1973, when SET and their rival, Shinma Channel 7 got their own general programming license, they made the switch to general TV programming at the same time, completing the transition.

#### TV Asahi Singala (1st April 1977-31st January 1997)

On April 1st 1977, the full name was changed to **Asahi Singaliese Broadcasting Foundation Limited**, with the station name being changed to **TV Asahi Singala**. This also symbolize Asahi Shimbun's ownership of the channel name and in essence. After 18th September 1978, **TV Asahi Singala** broadcast programmes with stereo audio.