You could say Singapore’s TV landscape in a nutshell has essentially remained the same in the last few years, dominated by a few major players. MediaCorp remains the country’s sole FTA broadcaster, and telco giants StarHub and SingTel continue to duke it out as the two pay-TV operators in the country. On the content front it would seem not much has changed either – networks distributing to the tiny city-state continue the battle for ratings, season after season. There is however, one player whose role in content development has grown in the last two years – Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA).
The year wraps up for MDA with a major internal change as well. CEO Aubeck Kam left the media regulatory body to take on a bigger portfolio as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information, which oversees MDA. Koh Lin-Net, who was most recently Deputy Secretary (Trade) at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, took over as CEO on November 1.
Kam’s two-year tenure at MDA marked a period of continued growth in government support for industry development. The MDA Grant Schemes were revamped in July this year to provide greater and more flexible support to the media sector, at the same time placing greater emphasis on the development of quality content, talent upskilling and raising productivity. Over the next five years, an additional S$20 million (US$16.33 million) will go into three new productivity measures – training allowance, enhanced apprenticeship and process improvements. Under Kam’s leadership the MDA also expanded its support for public service content by revising its co-production scheme into the Public Service Broadcast Contestable Funds Scheme, and making the grants available to non-FTA TV platforms, plus placing the copyright for programmes supported under the scheme to the content producers.
The increasing government support for the TV industry, particularly for local content providers and distributors, has paid off in global content markets. At MIPCOM this year Singapore-based M2B World Asia Pacific inked a technological partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd to use M2B’s WOWtv platform to distribute rich media and entertainment content to over 130 countries worldwide. In addition, boutique distribution company Bomanbridge Media Singapore signed a deal with Finnish company Intervisio for Angel’s Gate, the world’s first transmedia business reality format. MDA’s 3D push in 2011 also helped Monstrou Studio Singapore close a US$5 million animation co-production agreement with Spanish production house Sweatbox and Televisio de Catalunya for Nightbreeds, a 26-episode 3D action-adventure cartoon series targeted at children aged 9 – 12.
Also at MIPCOM, Singapore-based August Media Holdings also signed a deal with Kool Produktion (Norway) to coproduce the second series of animated pre-school series Ella Bella Bingo. Asian Food Channel (AFC), for its part, launched eight new productions, including 36 Ways To Live, Back To The Streets, The Boss 2, and The Big Break. Meanwhile, Singapore-based One Animation and Zodiak Kids The Foundation’s announced a memorandum of agreement to develop three children’s animated television programmes beginning late this year.
Digitisation
Over the summer the government also announced Singapore’s FTA TV channels will go fully digital by the end of 2013 using the DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial) broadcasting standard.
This year MediaCorp also introduced its over-the-top (OTT) interactive service Toggle, with Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s KIX Thrill Select and Viacom International Media Networks’s Comedy Central Asia slated to air among others.
On the pay TV front, Disney XD, launched September on pay TV operator Astro Malaysia by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia, is slated for distribution in Singapore next year, but faces competition from Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific’s new channels. The Cartoon Network broadcaster launched Toonami and Cartoonito on December 1. Toonami airs animated hits such as Young Justice, Dragon Ball Z and Batman: the Brave and the Bold, aimed at “fanboys (and girls) across the region”.
Media hub
The 1,327 entries received at the Singapore-held Asian Television Awards shows the region’s TV content is stronger than ever, and Singapore is truly shaping up as the media hub for the region. CBS Studios International established an office in the country, and AMC/Sundance Channel Global announced it will base its Asian operation’s on-air creative services in the city-state.
December further emphasises the country’s strength as a TV hub in Asia with the Asia TV Forum & Market, which will now be held in conjunction with ScreenSingapore, making it the place to be for financing, co-producing, buying and selling entertainment content across all platforms in Asia. With the lines blurring between TV and film content, co-locating ScreenSingapore gives film productions in the region unprecedented access to 4,000 buyers and sellers from close to 60 countries in both TV and film.
