Lenaporean Public Broadcasting Service
The Lenaporean Public Broadcasting Service is the public broadcaster of Lenapore, created as a response on LBC's behalf of privatizing itself.
History[edit | edit source]
Founding[edit | edit source]
In the early 90s, the Lenapore Broadcasting Corporation was acting more like a commercial enterprise rather than a state-owned enterprise. The corporation was on the brink of restructuring to the extent that a wholesale privatization of the network was evident.
In October 1993, a cabinet began discussing the feasibility of a new public radio and television service, supposedly enacted under the law to provide public service broadcasting that the "new LBC" was going to drop. At the same time, changes were being made to the branding of LBC's radio and television services. The government's Lenaporean Public Broadcasting Service Law came into effect in February 1994. Due to limited resources, LPBS was going to broadcast exclusively on radio and under the name Lenapore Radio National (Radio Lenapore was a registered trademark of LBC, yet was already out of use). For television, the chances of setting up a service were slim, and even at the time, LPBS had no resources for television.
Commencement of operations and struggle for television[edit | edit source]
LPBS began operating on October 1, 1994, the same day LBC was formerly privatized and renamed Lenapore International Media (TCL, RCL, LTV12). Much of LBC/RCL's AM network was handed over to the new corporation, seeing that the new RCL wasn't remotely interested in AM broadcasting. LRN only operated from 6pm to midnight at first, with programming in English and Japanese, followed by programming in Malay by November, Mandarin and Cantonese by the end of the year and Tamil during January of 1995. As the months progressed, the number of broadcast hours grew.
1995 also led to the beginning of an experimental television service by LPBS, in which it was responsible for the syndication of half-hour cultural and debate programming to local UHF television stations. Initially the programs were outsourced and broadcast on the behalf of LPBS, but in 1996 LPBS began to produce its own programming. The desire for a UHF-backed national television network began. Lenapore Radio National was renamed Radio National in the same year and was divided into three services, RN 1, RN 2 and RN 3.
Introduction of television[edit | edit source]
Finally in December 1999, LPBS started experimental television broadcasting, becoming regular on January 24, 2000. Initially LPBS was a "TV channel with morals", reportedly inspired by the Xiaowanese channel Da Ai. It started off with six hours of daily programming, mostly in English, with small pockets in other languages. This format failed and in December 2000, one year on from its launch, it started to try a more generalist approach.
New services[edit | edit source]
On February 2, 2009, LPBS, which up until then only controlled LPBS 1, LPBS 2 and the LPBS Parliament channel, doubled the number of assigned channels and launched LPBS Chinese (programming formerly seen on LPBS 2), LPBS Japanese (programming formerly seen on LPBS 1) and the English-language news channel LPBS 24.
The previous system was "less ambitious" and was reminiscent of the former management of the Lenaporean channels now under Mediacorp, with too much "language mixing". LPBS 2 under the new format was set up to be similar to the former Prime 12 in the process.
Introduction of commercial advertising[edit | edit source]
2018 restructuring[edit | edit source]
LPBS was restructured in 2018 as a consequence of the return of Mediacorp's commercial competition.
Operations[edit | edit source]
LPBS is dependent on a system that's closer to the Hopelandian HNB. The network schedule is defined from the network headquarters and most programming comes out live. Also, beginning in 2013, LPBS started accepting commercial advertising on selected slots of its radio and television networks. Most contributions are collected by the Media Development Authority and by the government.
