[Philippines] The first successful home-receiving TV set was demonstrated by a Professor in February 1950 at the University of Santo Tomas.

[Philippines] Feati University opened the first experimental TV station.

[Philippines] Commercial TV came to the Philippines when the first station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3, was opened by Alto Broadcasting System in Manila. Access was limited by the prohibitive costs of TV sets due to high import duties.

[Philippines] Despite the proliferation of TV stations, TV sets were expensive. Even when produced at half the price by local factories, they remained well beyond the means of average-income families. TV programmes were also expensive: a half-hour local programme cost P2000 (approx. P265000 today) to produce, and a half-hour imported programme cost $150 (approx. $1500 today) to air once.

[Singapore] In May 1960, the Singapore Government confirmed the introduction of TV in Singapore. The timeline was finalised in April 1961 and a $5.9 million budget for a one-channel TV station with a film unit was announced.

[Malaysia] On 16 March 1960, a committee in the cabinet of Malaysia was formed to study the introduction of TV and related issues posed by the initiation of TV service.

[Indonesia] Indonesia’s first TV station, TVRI, was founded. It televised the Fourth Asian Games in 1962. TVRI would hold monopoly on TV in Indonesia as its only TV channel until the introduction of private TV in 1987.

PT Transistor Radio Manufacturing produced the first colour TV in Indonesia.

[Singapore] TV services arrived in Singapore with black-and-white transmission, with the aid of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The first official broadcast was made on 15 February 1963. The first TV service had two free-to-air channels: Channel 5, which televised English and Malay programmes, and Channel 8, which had Mandarin and Tamil programmes.

[Malaysia] Talivishen Malaysia (Television Malaysia) was launched on 28 December 1963 with one network. For the first few years, it broadcasted only black-and-white programmes.

[Malaysia] More than 28,000 TV sets were licensed. The number of sets registered climbed by about 26,000 yearly, reaching a total of 150,000 by 1969.

[Philippines] TV continued to grow despite high prices during the 1960s and early 1970s. By 1966, ten years after TV came to the Philippines, there were 18 privately owned TV channels in the country with a viewership of more than one million.

[Philippines] Radiowealth Inc pioneered in the production of 19-, 21- and 25-inch models of colour TVs.

[Malaysia] Malaysia’s first satellite earth station in Kuantan was built, allowing the country to receive and send direct broadcast programmes via satellite.

[Indonesia] Official statistics showed that 212,590 TV sets were registered in Indonesia, 95% of which were within Java.

[Indonesia] Video was introduced in Indonesia and became a popular luxury item for the Indonesian urban middle class in the mid-1980s until the early 1990s.

[Singapore] Singapore had its first live colour TV transmission during the World Cup soccer finals on 7 July 1974. Four years later, colour programmes constituted 85% of all programmes.

[Indonesia] The domestic broadcast satellite Palapa was launched to bring TV to all Indonesian islands. Palapa allowed TV programmes to be accessible to communities outside of metropolitan Jakarta and in rural areas.

[Singapore] Early demand for video was sufficient to support a rental industry in Singapore. In the late 1970s, video clubs were formed for the public to borrow cassettes. The number of outlets shot up from 60 in 1983 to 250 by 1986. These were estimated to be grossing about $45 million annually, not counting sales of videos to home viewers.

[Malaysia] Television Malaysia began broadcasting colour programmes on 28 December 1978.

[Malaysia] 720,000 households possessed TV sets in 1979, having increased over time from 28,000 households in 1964.

[Indonesia] President Suharto decreed on 5 January 1981 that all TV commercials in Indonesia would be abolished as of 1 April 1981. This was largely due to concerns about the effects of foreign advertisements on rural Indonesian culture.

[Malaysia] An estimated 165,000 VCR units were in Malaysian households, about 15% of all households with TVs.

[Singapore] VCRs were popular in Singapore, with video units being made available at attractive duty-free prices.

[Indonesia] Nearly all TV set owners were in the higher economic category and more than two-thirds had undergone higher education.

Video emerged more gradually in the 1980s and eventually made its way to distant villages, providing their communities with income-generating opportunities.

[Malaysia] Following failed attempts to curb VCR sales with duties and tariff barriers, the Malaysian government slashed duties on VCRs by 50% in 1983, leading to an immediate jump in official video sales figures.

[Indonesia] Almost 3 million TV sets, which reached an estimated 95.5 million people or 64% of the population, were recorded in Indonesia.

Palapa’s successor, the more powerful Generation B Palapa, was launched. Programming for all stations was determined annually in the Jakarta headquarters of TVRI.

[Singapore] A worldwide survey showed that Singapore had one of the highest penetration rates of VCRs. They were present in 62.7% of Singapore’s TV-owning homes.

[Malaysia] According to the Asian Wall Street Journal, Malaysian surveys found that the ratio of VCRs to TV receivers near the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was the highest in the world.

[Philippines] As the Betamax player became obsolete and was replaced by VHS tapes and laser discs elsewhere in the world, its price suddenly dropped in the Philippines and became much more popular.

[Indonesia] The number of TV sets grew sixfold in the 1980s. In the same period, the number of radios only grew threefold. By the late 1980s, more Indonesians were watching TV regularly than reading newspapers or magazines, or listening to the radio.

[Indonesia] The state-controlled TVRI’s monopoly over Indonesian TV came to an end when the Ministry of Information granted permission for the first public station, Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI), to broadcast its programme.

Video usage in Indonesia varied across locations. In villages, VCRs were usually found in public showing houses where viewers paid for admission. In cities, they were more often used for personal viewing.

[Singapore] Singapore retained world leadership in ownership of VCRs (excluding Arab countries in the Middle East), with VCRs registered in 75% of all homes, according to Survey Research Singapore.

[Philippines] Per capita, the number of VCRs and players in the Philippines was still lower than in Japan and Korea. The majority of VCR owners belonged to the upper class, who were in turn a minority amongst the moviegoing public.

[Indonesia] The VCR ceased to be a luxury item. Units could be purchased in Jakarta for an outlay comparable to that of discount centres in Singapore and Malaysia.

[Philippines] While TV penetration remained high, only 16% of Filipino households owned a colour TV. Moreover, VCR penetration was even lower, with only 8% of Filipino households owning one.

[Indonesia] Digital video (DV) cameras were released on the market for relatively low prices by manufacturers such as Sony, JVC and Panasonic, among others.

[Malaysia] From 720,000 in 1979, the number of households owning TV sets increased to just under two million in 1996.

[Philippines] Portable CD players became popular and demand for CDs increased. The video compact disc (VCD) had also become a popular format with the proliferation of VCD players and CD-ROM drives. By 1998, the VCD market was flourishing and had overtaken the sale of VHS tapes.

[Indonesia] VCD was introduced in Indonesia.

[Philippines] In a study on the penetration of TV and VCR technology in rural Philippines, half of TV owners already owned a VCR, with the middle and upper classes (56%) being more likely to afford this technology, though the lower classes (35%) were not far behind. TV ownership in provincial Philippines was estimated to be around 50–60%.

[Indonesia] The introduction of digital video cameras to Indonesian consumers made it possible for large segments of the population to not only consume existing materials, but also record their own videos.

[Philippines] MiniDV was introduced to the Philippines. Independent filmmakers seized this as their weapon of choice, to escape from the financial pressure of recouping equipment costs.

Throughout the 1990s, 90% of the nation owned TVs as their reach was boosted by the growth of the remittance economy. Overseas contract workers funded purchases of TV sets for their families at home in the Philippines. Across most of the country, people could watch both TV broadcasts in real time and access video (and later digital video disc, or DVD) recordings of Filipino films.

[Malaysia] VCDs practically eliminated the sale and rental of video cassettes.

[Philippines] Equipment used for digital filmmaking like the DV-8 and Mini-DVs became cheaper and more accessible to people who wanted to make their own films.

[Indonesia] DVD was introduced.