These days, Singapore’s audiences are spoilt for choice. Since the birth of Singapore Cable Vision (SCV), which was acquired by StarHub and reintroduced as StarHub TV in 2001, and more recently the debut of Singtel’s mioTV, there has been a significant increase in the quantity of television content on offer for the nation’s cable-happy consumers.
At present, Free-to-Air (FTA) television still dominates the primetime TV share in the country, although it has been consistently losing viewers for more than a decade to the various Pay-TV channels.
The increased competition on all fronts has meant that MediaCorp, Singapore’s sole FTA broadcaster, as well as Pay-TV content providers, have had to develop a distinct edge in order to differentiate themselves from each other. Whether it is the type of programmes a channel offers or the type of platform a channel uses to broadcast content, the idea of developing a unique selling point has become pivotal in the future growth of the television business here. One strategy being pursued in this maturing TV market is meeting the demand for more defined, less massmarket programming appealing to audiences’ specific interests.
Close to a dozen specialized channels have launched in Singapore in the past two years. Examples include Life Inspired or Li, a lifestyle channel targeted specifically at Asian audiences – a first in the region; WEtv, a women’s entertainment network; and KIX, a channel dedicated to airing action-packed shows.
Another key entrant is Sony Pictures Television’s (SPT) new Asian drama channel, ONE. Launched on StarHub in April and now also available on mioTV (from October), the HD channel aims to satiate the strong appetite for Korean entertainment, 24 hours a day. Additionally, ONE is offered as a separate channel on StarHub, known as ONE Malay, dubbed in Bahasa Malayu, catering to K-Drama’s popularity with Singapore’s Malay community.
Ricky Ow, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks, Asia, SPT, said that in Singapore and certainly elsewhere around the world as well, specialized provisions like the ONE channel are indeed becoming a trend. “To succeed in such a highly competitive and multi-choice environment, brands need to have a distinct identity and ultimately, offer compelling content that viewers want to watch whether it be a specific niche or broader general entertainment,” he said. Furthermore, there is a huge demand currently in the country for such content. “There has been a rise in popularity of Korean entertainment with both K-Pop and K-drama over the past few years across the region including here in Singapore”, said Ow.
He added that the network had been closely looking for an opportunity to launch a second service dedicated to Asian content in the country, after the successful launch of Japanese/Animae channel Animax a few years ago, and found a window with ONE. “With an increased demand, we saw an opportunity”, noted Ow.
mioTV is also cashing in on the growing trend for more specialized Asian entertainment channels. In August it launched Jia Le, a 24- hour channel, self-packaged by the operator, which focuses on the best Hokkien dialect and Mandarin content sourced mainly from top producers in Taiwan.
“We launched this channel because more than 40 per cent of Chinese Singaporeans are Hokkien”, Goh Seow Eng, Chief, Digital Home, SingTel, told TV ASIA Plus at the channel’s launch. Terming such an offering as “ethnic programming”, the channel targets the Singaporean heartland population.
The operator also concurrently launched Jia Le On-Demand, a VoD platform allowing viewers to catch up on any shows they might have missed, anytime within 24 hours after an episode has premiered on the linear Jia Le channel.
Drama is not the only way to pull in diverse punters. In September, Fox International Channels (FIC) took a big step and repackaged its Nat Geo Wild channel. It now airs in all four of Singapore’s official languages – English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. Joon Lee, Senior Vice President, Programming, Creative and Channel Operations at Fox International Channels, explained that the company’s business approach “has always been market by market, channel by channel. We don’t have a one-size-fits-all strategy”. This is especially true in Asia-Pacific markets such as Singapore, where cultures can be diverse and “in order to create a closer connection with the local audiences, we believe it’s important to deliver programming that is culturally relevant and in languages that cater to the needs of these audiences,” he said.
According to Lee, offerings with multi-language options are becoming a trend because viewers want to watch content that is relevant to them and language is an element that allows for the creation of a common ground. He added that in Singapore, the 20 top channels on Pay-TV include those that air in Tamil, Mandarin, English, Cantonese and even Korean. “This indicates that there is demand for content in each of these languages, although in a fragmented state.”
The efforts by the Pay-TV networks to keep consumers’ eyes on the box are reflective of the media environment today. Latest findings from Nielsen’s Media Index Report, which surveyed nearly 5,000 people in Singapore aged 15 and above between July last year and June this year, found that new media has gained more in viewership share, compared to both terrestrial and Pay-TV, increasing some 6.3 per cent.
This has also prompted MediaCorp to look at further diversifying the way its content is viewed and accessed. In early 2012 the broadcaster is expected to launch its own Over-The-Top or OTT service. Teo Ming Kian, Chairman of MediaCorp, believes this move is significant for the national broadcaster. “This is the first attempt by MediaCorp to get into the subscription, Pay-TV space. It will enable our audiences to better choose what they want to see and when.” It is this element of choice, which paying a premium affords, that Teo believes is what consumers want.
He added that because the service is “device-agnostic”, where content is available on various platforms – TV, mobile phones, computers and tablets – MediaCorp programming can now be accessed more conveniently and easily, allowing it to engage more viewers and at different times.
But this “crossing of platforms” is not a first for the State broadcaster. Back in 2006, MediaCorp launched the MediaCorp Online Broadband Television (MOBTV), Singapore’s first subscription-based video-on-demand (VoD) service that provided viewers with access to previously screened TV programmes via digital streaming or download from an Internet connection to their PCs.
Then in March 2010, the service migrated to xinmsn.com, becoming a free VoD service. Providing a catch-up TV service and original programmes for free is proving to be a beneficial move for MediaCorp. According to Moses Lye, Vice President of Interactive Media, MediaCorp, the online portal has achieved healthy numbers, recording 6 million cumulative video views and achieving 68 per cent reach amongst all of Singapore’s portals, based on comScore’s data.
Lye believes that xinmsn not only provides an alternative medium for TV shows to be aired via the Net, but it also guides consumers back to the traditional TV medium. “Initially, when we were doing this, there was some uneasiness about people maybe watching this online and not on TV anymore. But then we found out that this didn’t take anything away from the TV show but instead generated more interest in the actual TV show because there’s now buzz online.”
The concept of catch-up TV in Singapore started with StarHub TV ten years ago, when timeshifted channels such as VVD+6 and E City+3 were launched. With technological advancements, even more control and interactive features, such as SVOD, PVR and mobile TV, have been added. Iris Wee, StarHub’s Head of Home Solutions & Content, said such services are why customers are still subscribing to Pay-TV even though Singapore has a very high number of terrestrial channels.
As the Singapore market continues to mature, the demands of audiences are becoming increasingly specific. The burgeoning number of specialized and tailored content channels is reflecting this sea change. Digitization has seen more and more content being not only simultaneously offered on new media platforms, but even exclusively premiered for online subscribers and across different languages.
The year has proven to be one of specifics, where both FTA and PayTV networks are finding new ways to grow Singapore’s mature TV market. Although Pay-TV garners a significant 60 per cent share, various online platforms and new players such as telco M1’s plans to enter the market in 2012, means there is no clear winner as yet but for consumers, plenty of reasons to switch on.
