At 6pm on 15 February 1963, Channel 5 was launched as its first pilot television service as "Television Singapura". The channel operated 1-hour and 40-minutes monochrome service on black and white during its daily test transmissions from 6pm to 7.40pm. After the image of the state flag and the playing of the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, then-Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam became the first person to appear on Singapore TV, announcing that "Tonight might well mark the start of a social and cultural revolution in our lives." Following his speech, the first television programme in Singapore was a 15-minute documentary produced by Television Singapura called TV Looks at Singapore. It was followed by two cartoons, a news report and newsreel, a comedy show and a local variety show. At the time, it was estimated that only one in 58 persons in Singapore owned a TV set, and the pilot service offered only 1-hour and 40-minutes of broadcasting per day on Channel 5. At 7.15pm on 2 April that year, PresidentYusof Ishak officially began inaugurated the regular television service as "Television Singapura Channel 5" with 4-hour daily broadcasts from at 7.15pm until 11.15pm before gradually brought forward to 6.30pm in September that year, showing programmes in Singapore's four official languages. At 10.20pm on 7 July 1974, Channel 5 began its first colour broadcasts with the first live telecast during the 1974 FIFA World Cup Final between West Germany and Netherlands, narrated by Brian Richmond, was displayed in colour via satellite transmission as the first colour television programmes held at Olympiastadion, Munich. About 2,000 colour television sets were sold in Singapore three days before the match. At 4.44pm on 9 August that year, the Singapore National Day Parade held at Padang was broadcast in colour for the first time in all four languages. At stroke of midnight on New Year's Day 1994, Channel 5 officially revamp the channel logo for a new look to first channel in Singapore and became the full-fledged English channel with the television programmeTellymatch: Running On 5 at 7.30am, Tellymatch: Style Alive On 5 at 2pm, and Tellymatch: Finale On 5 at 1.30am which after News in English was split into two news bulletin programmes:
News 5 Tonight and became a late news bulletin on Channel 5; aired daily at 10.30pm.
On 1 November 2014, the channel was announced a revamp in terms on programme, billed as "Local Upsize", as some primetime programmes were moved 30 minutes earlier, and the start of the Super 7prime time belt with effect on 31 December that year. On 1 May 2019, the channel's morning and midday blocks was revamped and renamed to Okto on 5. The move is due to the closure of free-to-air children's and sport channelokto. The programmes replaced simulcast of CNA's breakfast news bulletin and reruns. On the other hand, the programming for the prime time and late-night blocks was retained.
