Vasantham () is a

Tamil-language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one ...

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, owned by state media conglomerate

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, 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. ...

. The channel broadcasts entertainment and news programming targeting the Singaporean Tamil community. It’s the dominant local channel targeted at the Indian community in Singapore.

History

Since the inception of television broadcasting in Singapore, Tamil-language programming had been broadcast by Mediacorp and its predecessors via its existing channels; after having carried programming in all four of Singapore's official languages on Channel 5 and 8, the channels were split on 30 March 1973. Channel 5 would focus on English and Malay, and Channel 8 would focus on Chinese and Tamil. On 1 September 1995, Channel 12—which took on Malay programming after Channel 5 relaunched as an English-language channel a year prior—relaunched as Prime 12, and Tamil programming moved to the channel. With the move, Tamil output increased from an average of 10 hours per-week to 16 hours. In September 1999, Singapore Television Twelve announced changes to its two channels taking effect in 2000, with Prime 12 becoming a full-time Malay channel known as Suria, and Premiere 12 (which took on arts and cultural programming after the Prime 12 relaunch) becoming Central—a channel divided into blocks for children's programming, Tamil programming, and arts programming. "Vasantham Central" would be one of the three main program strands carried by Central. In February 2008, it was announced that Central would be discontinued, and that its Kids Central and Vasantham Central strands would be spun-off as full-time channels. The new channels—Vasantham and

Okto Okto is a Singaporean children's programming block broadcast by Mediacorp's Channel 5 in English and Channel 8 in Mandarin Chinese. The brand originally operated as a standalone free-to-air channel from 19 October 2008 to 1 May 2019, havin ...

—would launch in 19 October 2008.

Programming

Vasantham's programming consists primarily of Tamil-language dramas and

variety shows Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compè ...

. ''Seithi'' (செய்தி) serves as the station's evening newscast. In 2019, the channel launched ''Muthal Paarvai'', a viewer-voted

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

contest for new Vasantham dramas. Vasantham broadcasts from 9:00 a.m. SGT daily, signing off at 12:00 a.m. SGT on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, 12:30 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and 1:30 a.m. on Saturdays (except on national holidays where it broadcasts for 24 hours). A simulcast of Mediacorp's Tamil-language radio station

Oli 968 Oli 968 () is a Tamil-language radio station in Singapore. Owned by the state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts programming serving Indian Singaporeans Indian Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Indian people, Indian or of general ...

is carried during the overnight and morning hours until

sign-on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

References

External links

Vasantham Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasantham 1995 establishments in Singapore Tamil-language television channels Tamil-language television stations in Singapore Mass media in Singapore Mediacorp Television channels and stations established in 1995