Colour TV test transmissions started in May 1974. The unresponsiveness to colour TV changed when the TV station announced that its first 'live' colour telecast via satellite would be the World Cup Soccer Finals between West Germany and Holland on 7 Jul 1974 at 10.30pm. Golden Mile Complex had 20 sets installed and 7 hotels had over 30 sets among them receiving the match 'live'. Two thousand TV sets were bought the day before the match. A million people watched West Germany beat Holland 2-1 in living colour.
The first phase of the colour service began smoothly on 1 Aug 1974, and on 11 Nov 1974, the second phase was launched. The newsreel was televised in colour and programmes increased from two hours to four hours on weekdays and from four to six hours on weekends. By 1987, 526,677 households or one in 1.2 households here had colour TV sets.
In August 1965, Singapore separated from Malaysia, thus television broadcasting became a state-run operation under Radio Television of Singapore (RTS). The RTS was authorized to use television broadcasting to encourage national development. The following years saw the steady progress of television, with the completion of a TV Centre equipped with modern production equipment in 1966. In addition, an educational service for school children in 1967 and gradual extension of transmission time was set up, with duration to six hours on weekdays and 11 hours on weekends.
The next major change came in 1980, when RTS became the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its main objective was to improve the quality of radio and television broadcasting services through the use of latest broadcasting technology and enhancing the content and presentation of local productions. This act was later modified in to reinforce SBC by giving it exclusive television broadcasting rights and also to exercise licensing and regulatory functions.
In the 1990s, the broadcasting industry in Singapore has undergone steady transformation. In 1994, SBC became a corporation in order to introduce more competition into the local broadcast industry. Later that year, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority was set up as a statutory body under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MITA) to regulate and promote the broadcasting industry and new broadcasting technologies such as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and Digital Television.
On 1 Jan 2003, the merger of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Films and Publications Department, and the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) saw the formation of the Media Development Authority (MDA). The MDA has been created to focus on and develop the media industry, putting Singapore at the front of the media age and respond to the unification of different media that requires a consistent approach in developing and managing the different forms of media.