First telecast on Monday, 19 October 2009 from 8.30-10.30pm, humanitarian charity special Project Hope aired over MediaCorp’s Channel 5, Suria, TVMobile and its outdoor screens at shopping mall Orchard Central. The full cost of production was underwritten by MediaCorp. Featuring over 100 MediaCorp, local and ASEAN artistes, donations totalling S$1.3 million were received for the Singapore Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and Mercy Relief which had launched public appeals for survivors of Typhoon Ketsana in Indochina and the Padang earthquake in Indonesia. MediaCorp CEO Lucas Chow said he was overwhelmed by the public’s generosity coming, as the show did, soon after The President’s Star Charity which raised S$6 million. “For Project Hope, we were hoping for around half a million dollars, so S$1.3 million was a great achievement, especially as most came from personal donations.” Chow said that, unlike The President’s Star Charity, Project Hope did not benefit from larger corporate sponsors but it attracted more individual phone calls than the former. “I think it surprised all of us how quickly we got everything together, the member broadcasters contributed footage and talent – despite logistical difficulties arising from the calamities. We’re definitely looking forward to exploring future projects,” he said. It was 24 March 2009 in Singapore that the group of broadcasters announced its commitment to form the SMART Alliance. Its six founding members – ABS-CBN (Philippines), BBTV (Thailand), International Media Corporation (Vietnam), Media Nusantara Citra (Indonesia), Media Prima (Malaysia) and MediaCorp (Singapore) inked a Memorandum Of Understanding pledging to work on three specific areas: Content; Sales and Marketing; Technology. With ASEAN alone presenting a combined market size of over half a billion eyeballs and a growing middle-class population with increasingly substantial spending powers, the Alliance sees itself as well-positioned to exploit economies of scale both as a supplier of content as well as a buyer of technology and equipment. Asked about progress since the SMART Alliance’s formation, Chow said that many member broadcasters had much more pressing domestic woes that needed to be addressed. “Given the crises taking place in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, our next meeting (scheduled for October in Manila) was replaced with a conference call – from which Project Hope was born.” He said there are still plans afoot for a pan-regional reality show, possibly a singing or music contest, “But given that there is a lot of relief work and rebuilding occurring in disaster-hit communities around ASEAN, it would be inappropriate for media companies to be investing in such projects at the present time.” Closer to home, Chow says this year’s MediaCorp Festival was the second time the company had showcased its integrated media offering to agencies and clients. “Advertising clients are looking for solutions across multiple platforms: TV, radio, print, online for example. Integrating our advertising is definitely working.” Asked about the operational changes implemented to make this happen, Chow said, “We’re like a swan, composed on the surface but paddling furiously underwater. We now have a substantial support team for clients that are likely to spend, or are already spending, across multiple platforms.” Chow said that much has been done in response to clients, who asked for less people pitching to them. MediaCorp’s content sales and distribution team has also been integrated to exploit efficiencies in that area, but Chow says some areas have actually be de-centralised to good effect. “There are some areas we don’t want to consolidate, for example (Chinese-language) Channel 8 and Channel U used to be together but now operate under completely separate teams.” Chow says that fostering some internal competition has helped each channel hone its individual identity, with very different brand positioning and targeting very different demographics. Chow says there is also some competition within the creative content side of the business, with Channel U debuting edgy drama The Illusionist, a follow-up to two-seasons of the Perfect Cut. Channel 8 continues to reach out to Singapore’s Heartlanders with MediaCorp’s longest serial ever, Your Hand in Mine; the 180-episode drama starring Chen Li Ping and Joanne Peh will air at 9pm nightly. Also in production is Channel 8 Anniversary drama Together and musical drama A Song to Remember, produced by the team responsible for the highly-successful The Little Nyonya. Chow says that The Little Nyonya’s domestic ratings success has translated into international sales as far abroad as the US. He said that to showcase the delicacy of Peranakan cultures, the filming had to be excellent. “These productions cost multi-millions of dollars, and we try to produce at least one per year of this calibre. A Song to Remember and Together are MediaCorp Studios’ big budget shows for this year.” Asked about MediaCorp’s move to a four-day week and compulsory leave, Chow said the decision was a hard but necessary one. “It means that everyone kept their jobs during this downturn, but it’s not been easy. 24/7 staff, especially in the news department, have had to work throughout. But we are thankful for the support of the union and our employees.” While full pay was reinstated for the month of November, the company is not yet out of the woods, says Chow. “Pay will be decreased by 10 percent in December, because a lot of people are taking leave anyway, we’ll be shutting down (non-24/7 operations) for a week.” The no-pay leave policy will have been in place for a year come Lunar New Year 2010 and will be reviewed, says Chow. “Our advertising revenues are still down on 2008, only single-digit down for the second part of the year compared to double-digit down earlier in the year. At the current rate of recovery, it is my hope we will still do better than 2008,” he concludes.
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