SPH MediaWorks

SPH MediaWorks Ltd was an ephemeral free-to-air terrestrial television broadcaster in Singapore. On 6 May 2001, SPH MediaWorks brought 2 alternative free-to-air terrestrial television channels to the audience in Singapore, operating SPH MediaWorks Channel U and SPH MediaWorks Channel i.

A subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) through SPH Multimedia Ltd, SPH MediaWorks was originally set up to create variety and healthy competition with MediaCorp TV Singapore Pte Ltd (MediaCorp TV), MediaCorp TV12 Singapore Pte Ltd (MediaCorp TV12), and MediaCorp News Pte Ltd (MediaCorp News).

SPH MediaWorks was widely praised for injecting more variety in local programming and for its creative innovations.

On 1 January 2005, SPH MediaWorks had its tearful closing ceremony, after being dissolved and disestablished and concluded with a closedown sign-off, in the early morning of final transmission upon the merging of operations with MediaCorp Television Broadcasting Arm (MediaCorp TV, MediaCorp TV12, and MediaCorp News), MediaCorp Studios Pte Ltd (MediaCorp Studios), and MediaCorp EagleVision Pte Ltd (MediaCorp EagleVision).

Merger
On 17 September 2004, however, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and MediaCorp Singapore Pte Ltd (MediaCorp) announced that both companies had entered an agreement on merging the television operations of the two companies, of which operates the mainstream free-to-air terrestrial channels; MediaCorp TV Channel 5, MediaCorp TV Channel 8, MediaCorp TV TVMobile, SPH MediaWorks Channel U (优频道) and SPH MediaWorks Channel i.

The other free-to-air terrestrial channels, MediaCorp TV12 Suria and MediaCorp TV12 Central run by MediaCorp TV12 and MediaCorp News Channel NewsAsia by MediaCorp News remained wholly owned and run by MediaCorp Pte Ltd, in contrast to the channels owned by MediaCorp TV Pte Ltd under the holding company of MediaCorp Television Broadcasting Arm (A MediaCorp Channel) as of 1 January 2005; MediaCorp Television Broadcasting Arm were 80% managed by MediaCorp and 20% by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) through SPH Multimedia Ltd. The merger was seen as a move to reduce the losses faced by SPH since the launch of SPH MediaWorks Channel U and SPH MediaWorks Channel I, and to reduce the losses in the free newspaper market of "Today" faced by MediaCorp.

Apart from the merging of local television operations, the merging package includes the merging of the free newspaper operations of both MediaCorp and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). Streats, managed by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) was merged into “Today”; Streats will cease its independent publication upon the completion of the merger. “Today” continues to be managed by MediaCorp solely.

The merger of the two companies was also the first of its kind in history; a merger between a government unit and a private organization. It is inevitable, as Singapore free to air television market is small. The fact that SPH MediaWorks keeps operating their broadcast business at a loss makes merger with MediaCorp, a larger more established broadcast giant a viable solution.

Milestones
On 31 March 2000, Mr Lee Cheok Yew was appointed as the CEO of SPH MediaWorks Ltd. Mr Man Shu Sum and some of the MediaCorp artistes joined from SPH MediaWorks the former as Chief Operating Officer of MediaCorp.

On 6 May 2001, SPH MediaWorks Channel U, a Mandarin channel and its English counterpart as SPH MediaWorks TV Works were launched.

On 3 October 2001, SPH Radio Broadcasting Arm a joint management between SPH Multimedia and NTUC Media was launched as SPH UnionWorks; owns, manages, and operates UFM 1003 and WKRZ 91.3FM. Both radio stations were simply re-branded and resume operations of Heart 100.3FM and 91.3FM previously wholly owned by NTUC Media.

On 3 March 2002, SPH MediaWorks TV Works was renamed SPH MediaWorks Channel i.

On 4 December 2002, MediaWorks won the "Broadcaster of the Year" award in "Asia Television Awards". Channel U also bagged the "Channel of the Year" award.

Channel U too organises a charity show, "Ren Ci Charity Show", shortly after being named the Broadcaster of the Year. Ren Ci Charity Show bears similarity to those hosted by MediaCorp. Audience will be fed with intense performance presented by actors, actress and guest and encouraged to donate, commonly through telephone or mobile phone. However, this program does not make use of material incentive to encourage donations unlike any other charity shows going on then. With the great team effort of the Mediaworks team in both years of the show under SPH MediaWorks donations broke previously set records.

Mr Lee Cheok Yew resigned as CEO of SPH MediaWorks on 1 April 2003.

Channel i News won the "Best News Programme" of "Asia Television Awards" on 19 December 2003.

On 17 September 2004, MediaCorp CEO Ernest Wong struck a deal with SPH CEO Alan Chen to merge their mass-market television and free newspaper. The two media companies have previously been scathed and stifled by stiff and unhealthy competition from each other and the merger is widely seen as inevitable. MediaCorp Television Broadcasting Arm will be created upon the completion of merging. MediaCorp will have an 80% management while Singapore Press Holdings will own the remainder.

On 31 December 2004, MediaCorp and Singapore Press Holdings jointly announced that the merger is legally completed and that SPH MediaWorks Channel i after being seen as not commercially viable to maintain the channel (mainly due to the small English language television market in Singapore) was closing. It ceased transmission on Saturday (Weekend), 1 January 2005 at 01:30 am early dawn morning time (UTC+8).

Conclusion
Despite being in the market for merely four years, MediaWorks had managed to emerge as an eminent competitor to the more established MediaCorp.

Channel U was much praised for pioneering Mandarin-dubbed Korean dramas as well as Taiwanese television serials in their programmes. For example, the TVB longest running drama series A Kindred Spirit was highly popular, and resulted in the rival company MediaCorp producing local marathon family drama series like Holland V and Double Happiness.

List of channels (until 31 December 2004)
This was the second Mandarin television channel in Singapore, which became defunct on 1 January 2005 after being transferred to Mediacorp's management under the MediaCorp TV Channel U name.
 * Channel U

This was the second English television channel in Singapore, that ceased operations on 1 January 2005, due to the merger between SPH Mediaworks and Mediacorp. Its terrestrial frequency was re-used by (or this channel was replaced together with Kids Central and Arts Central under the) MediaCorp TV12 okto 3 years later.
 * Channel i

Variety

 * Exchange Lives 换栖俱乐部
 * Dream Challengers 圆梦心计划
 * Big Challenge 骨牌真情录
 * U Entertainment News U转娱乐圈
 * Banzai My Kids 亲子关系
 * 优先出击
 * 电视新纪元
 * 周末FUN轻松 – Variety
 * 标出新加坡 – Infotainment
 * 杨门女将 – Drama
 * Add Your Service 服务加加加
 * Bare Essentials 如果没有你 – Infotainment
 * Bon Voyage – Info-tainment
 * Celebrity Travellers 自游万岁 – Variety
 * Channel U News
 * Crunch Time 转捩点 (2 seasons) – Docu-drama
 * Dream Challengers e时代爱心勇士 – Infotainment
 * Food Train 食在必行 (2 seasons)
 * Go East 把把脉抓抓药 (4 seasons)
 * Happy Rules 开心就好 – Variety
 * Inside Out 非常透视眼 – Current affairs
 * Legally Yours 知法不犯法
 * Open Sesame 芝麻开门客人来 (2 seasons) – Variety
 * Origin of our Roots 你是哪里人？ – Infotainmnet
 * Renci Charity Show
 * Route to Glamour 新卧虎藏龙
 * Snap 全星总动员 (3 seasons)
 * Ready Steady Go 全民出动抢先玩 (2 seasons)
 * Mall and Mall
 * Show Me Your Power 斗一斗
 * Star Struck 职场大明星 (2 seasons)
 * Thank you for the years
 * The Next Big Thing 全民偶像星登场
 * Tonight I will tell 人生导火线 (2 seasons)
 * Top 10 十不相瞒
 * Ultimate Tastebuds 食在好吃 (2 seasons consecutive)
 * Yummy King 优选美食王 (3 seasons)
 * Variety Unlimited 综艺无界限 – Variety
 * $2 Wonderfood 食在好便宜
 * Mama Mia 食星报喜 (2 seasons)

Channel i

 * Ah Girl (3 seasons) – Sitcom
 * Channel i News – Current affairs
 * Cue – Current affairs
 * Durian King – Drama
 * Fat to Fit – Reality
 * Heath Matters – Current affairs
 * iContact – Current affairs
 * i on the news – Current affairs
 * i2u – Variety
 * Makansutra (4 seasons) – Infotainment
 * Perceptions – Drama
 * Singapore Shakes – Drama
 * Six Weeks – Drama
 * The Money Tree – Current affairs
 * World Life – Current affairs

TV Works

 * The Big Buffet – two weeks run
 * Big Chilli Wednesday
 * The Odd Squad
 * Jalan Jalan
 * The Big Break
 * The Mensroom
 * Here's A Million – Gameshow
 * After Hours – Talk show
 * It's All In The Body – Info-Ed
 * Dollars & Sense – Current Affairs

Left for MediaCorp (Pre-Merger)

 * Jeanette Aw

Transferred to MediaCorp

 * Adam Chen 詹金泉
 * Shaun Chen 陈泓宇
 * Michelle Chia 谢韵仪
 * Celest Chong 张玉华
 * Apple Hong 洪乙心
 * Ann Kok 郭淑娴
 * Eelyn Kok 郭蕙雯
 * Ezzan Lee 李之仪
 * Darren Lim 林明伦
 * Guo Liang 郭亮
 * Ong Ai Leng 王爱玲
 * Kym Ng 钟琴
 * Adrian Pang 彭耀顺
 * Lynn Poh 傅芳玲
 * Quan Yi Fong 权仪凤
 * Ix Shen 沈倾掞
 * Constance Song 宋怡霏
 * Bryan Wong 王禄江
 * Ben Yeo 杨志龙

Transferred to Singapore Press Holdings

 * Arnold Gay – Now with Kiss 92FM since its launch on September 3, 2012
 * Lin Wanfei 林琬绯
 * Lina Ng 黄嫊方 - to marketing, subsequently to UnionWorks UFM100.3 and returned to MediaCorp since then.
 * Evelyn Tan- to circulation, subsequently resigned
 * Wang Yanqing – to print, subsequently to UnionWorks UFM100.3
 * Zhang Haijie 张海洁 (Helen Cheung) – Offered a contract to MediaCorp, but chose to join UnionWorks UFM100.3 instead. Later rejoined MediaCorp's news division.
 * Zhou Huimin (Chew Huoy Min) – to print

On retainer

 * Cynthia Lee – Released, and returned to her career onstage
 * Pamela Oei – Released, and returned to a career in the performing arts
 * Steph Song – Released, now acting in North America
 * Catherine Tan

Not offered/Chose not to accept a contract

 * Bernard Tan 陈川之 – Acts part-time with MediaCorp while maintaining his business in the financial planning industry
 * Chen Huihui 陈慧慧 – Currently runs a chain of spas; acts with MediaCorp on a per-project basis
 * Fu Aini
 * Benjamin Heng 王智国 – project-based artiste with MediaCorp
 * Ericia Lee – now with Dream Forest
 * David Leong
 * Li Wenhai 李文海 - Acts with MediaCorp on a per-project basis
 * Adrian Lim – currently the Design Director for TWG Tea.
 * Cherie Lim
 * Liu Qiulian 刘秋莲 - retired from showbiz
 * Johnson Low
 * Ann Poh
 * Xavier Teo
 * Darren Seah
 * Dick Su
 * Wang Liuyan
 * Wymen Yong
 * Peter Yu 宏荣