Okto on 5 is a daily children's program block on Mediacorp's Channel 5. The block airs daily during 5's morning and midafternoon time slots. The Okto brand was introduced as a Singaporean standalone free-to-air television channel. A replacement of the Kids and Arts segments of Central, the channel aired mostly children's programmes, as well as some arts and sports programmes. The channel's target audiences were children ages 2–13, and adults ages 18–39. Okto ceased as a separate channel on 1 May 2019, due to lack of viewership.
History
Predecessors (1995-2008)
was launched on 1 September 1995, following the split of Channel 12 into it and Prime 12. The channel broadcast on a separate UHF frequency. Premiere 12 also included children's TV series and sports coverage. Premiere 12 later included Tamil-language series and was rebranded as Central, on 30 January 2000. Central's programming schedule was composed of three timeshared channels: Kids Central, focused on kids' programming; Vasantham Central, a Tamil-language programming block; and Arts Central centred on cultural programming.
Okto channel (2008-2019)
On 19 October 2008, Central was dissolved. Vasantham Central on-air time was extended to form Vasantham, an independent channel focused on the Indian community of Singapore, as announced on 29 February that year by then Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Dr. Balaji Sadasivan in Parliament. Meanwhile, Kids Central and Arts Central were merged into a single channel named Okto, on a frequency and channel space formerly occupied by Channel i. On 4 May 2015, the channel began airing in HD.
As Channel 5's kids block
At midnight of 1 May 2019, Okto ceased transmission as a separate kids and sports channel due to lack of viewership, as announced on 20 February that year. The current Okto and OktoSports programming were split upon shutdown: children shows were merged into Channel 5's morning and midday schedule under the Okto on 5 branding, and sports content were absorbed primarily to Mediacorp's over-the-top service Toggle and on Channel 5 for selected sports coverages. Okto's channel license was surrendered to the Infocomm Media Development Authority a few days later.
Programming
Since its standalone channel era, Okto mostly aired English language-produced series with selected shows being broadcast in their original language. The channel's programming consisted of children's TV series, documentaries, lifestyle, news, current affairs, anime, and art performances. In June 2014, Sports on Okto was introduced which showed sporting events live as well as recorded and delayed coverage. Events such as 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, 2014 Asian Games and 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup had been broadcast on the channel. As Singapore hosted the 2015 SEA Games, Okto took the full coverage of the games live, and in HD for the first time, including the Opening & Closing ceremonies and the daily highlights.
