The Evolution of Channel 5 and Suria

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Hello!

This tumblr blog is a collaboration between five students - Erika, Yunchu, Shanwen, Gary, Gabriel and Kay. This blog is our project for our CS8090 module, entitled FIlm and Television in Singapore. 

This blog is meant to function as a timeline and as a history of two particular channels in Singapore - Channel 5 and Suria, which air English and Malay programmes respectively, today. Given that we've started right at the beginning of Singapore's television history, before programmes were separated into channels by languages, things may seem a little messy. We've done our best to track the progress of these two channels in particular, covering past and present programmes and comparing the changes! All our posts are in chronological order, but tumblr's reverse chronological presentation makes things a little awkward. In order to view this project from the very beginning of time where we intend for you to begin (haha), please do not scroll down but add this to the end of the URL in your browser's address bar instead:

/tagged/tvproject/chrono

Things should make sense from here on out. 

The government has used Suria as a tool to spread the usage of proper Malay within the Malay-speaking community in Singapore. The Media Development Authority's Malay Program Advisory Committee Report had deemed the improper usage of Malay to be a concern, continuing the local trend of promoting the 'proper' usage of a language. 

This ongoing obsession has gone beyond plaguing local television, with the Speak Good English campaign as a prime example. Due to the uniquely multi-racial and multi-lingual society we live in, many Singaporeans do not speak wholly in one language all the time and occasionally mix in words from English or other languages. However, the MDA uses Suria to promote the use of grammatically sound, pitch perfect Malay at all times, despite being aware of the reality of the average Singaporean Malay person using a mix of Malay and English in their daily speech. In an apparent bid to keep Suria a "Malay channel" instead of recognising the fluidity of Malay as a language and the adaptability of its users, MDA seems determined to keep the usage of English words to a minimum. 

The foremost challenge that Suria faces is that of revenue generation, as it cannot depend solely on the local Malay community. Suria needs to tap into the regional countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, and this need was identified when Suria was known as TV12. In 1996, the then-Minister of Community Development and Minister-in-charge of Malay affairs Dr Abdullah Tarmugi was quoted as saying that Malay programmes needed more revenue such that better quality productions could be produced. 

This is because the Malay community was growing to have a sophisticated taste and demanded local programmes of a better quality. This came about as the Malay-speaking audience had become increasingly liberal as more shows from the US and UK trickled in, and as Malaysia and Indonesia's high quality television shows proved themselves to be a competitor of note. The advent of cable television heightened the need for better programmes, as international broadcasts were readily available and provided even greater competition for local productions. As a result, Malay television programmes have attempted to replicate concepts and themes seen in international programmes. This phenomenon is not limited to Suria, as several Channel 5 programmes appear to have been utilising the same tactic.

Channel 5 TV shows have evolved over the years, from the early days of Under One Roof and Phua Chu Kang to current shows like The Noose, Code of Law, Point of Entry, and Our Makan Places. The first reason for the evolution from family sitcom-style dramas to parodies, law enforcement and reality shows is competition with overseas television shows, especially those from the US and UK. Given that Singapore has been airing plenty of overseas shows and has a high cable TV saturation rate, along with the increasing availability of TV shows from outside of Singapore on the internet, local productions have to up the ante in order to compete and continue to retain viewership.

Hence, shows like Code of Law and Point of Entry took a cue from the Hong Kong police drama genre and shows such as Law and Order from the United States, which had an incredibly successful run of 20 seasons over 20 years. In order to compete, Code of Law appears to closely follow Law and Order’s tried-and-tested formula of having a TV series showcase both the law enforcement and legal aspects involved in solving and prosecuting a crime, while using Singaporean tales and settings in order to anchor it to our local context. Shows like Code of Law and Point of Entry seem to exist for the faction of dubious Singaporeans who believe that local productions simply cannot measure up to shows from countries with more seasoned industries. In any case, the penetration rate of Channel 5 (54.2%) certainly gives critics of Singaporean TV shows pause.

Another reason for moving away family melodramas is audience fatigue, as observed by Brenda Chan. Hence, there must be some exploration into other alternate genres - genres that are sufficiently distant from everyday experiences that audiences already know intimately, yet still sufficiently localised so as not to be too distant from Singaporean viewers. Despite audience fatigue from family-centred dramas, the longevity of Under One Roof and Phua Chu Kang, which ran until the 2000s cannot be underestimated - Singaporeans still value family as part of a conservative society with family values, after all.

The Noose is a comedy television series into its seventh season on Channel 5. The show, which is a parody of local news programmes, has won awards in 2010 and 2011 at the Asian Television Awards.

Phua Chu Kang was Singapore’s longest running sitcom, with its debut in 1997 and its last episode in 2007. It was then followed up with a sequel in 2009, which is still on air.

  Phua Chu Kang, or PCK as it is colloquially known, is centred around a caricature of a local “Ah Beng” contractor with trademark yellow boots and a large facial mole. The show is unique in its use of Singlish, a pidgin form of English, which the government has tried very hard to eradicate with movements such as the Speak Good English Movement.

On 31st January 1984, SBC launched a new channel, SBC 12. SBC 12 would later become Suria, but SBC 12’s then-goal was to promote arts and cultural appreciation for Singaporeans. SBC 12 also covered many sports events, such as the Malaysia Cup, the SEA Games and ASEAN Games, FIFA World Cup and the English Premier League.