SINGAPORE: MediaCorp will be launching in the 4th quarter of 2008, dedicated television channels for the Indian community and children.

This was announced by Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and Arts Dr Balaji Sadasivan in Parliament on Friday.

“Vasantham”, which means “Spring” in Tamil, will serve the growing Indian community in Singapore and viewers can look forward to an increase in Indian-language programming from the current 29 to 65 hours each week.

Ms Lim Suat Jien, MD MediaCorp TV12 which runs the special interest channels, said "We're acting on invaluable feedback from Indians living in Singapore on how they look forward to their own dedicated channel with a local flavour."

The Indian channel which could include some non-Tamil language shows from time to time, will offer family-based entertainment programmes, locally produced long-form serials as well as Tamil news and current affairs and reality-based shows.

"For Vasantham, news and current affairs will remain strong anchors for the channel" said Ms Lim. "What we'll see more of, is quite a fair bit of reality programmes with interactive component and also because of the extended hours we will have a very good opportunity to introduce long form drama which will reflect the aspirations and the lives and the culture of the community."

When current Tamil language programming on MediaCorp's Central TV channel migrates to Vasantham, Central will become an English channel with children as its main focus.

Ms Lim adds, "We're excited by the new line up on Central, which will reinforce our lead in children's programming. Right now, Kids Central is already the most-watched children’s channel in Singapore. With more programmes to offer, we're confident we will win over even more viewers. Few free-to-air broadcasters offer so many kids programming hours, and we're proud to be leading the charge."

The programme line-up on Central will cater to pre-schoolers and their caregivers in the morning, primary school students in the afternoon, and teenagers and young adults in the evening.

In the later part of the evening, Central will change pace and offer top-notched programmes for more mature audiences. This will range from cutting-edge local productions, to world-class documentaries as well as arts performances and anime.

"The key message that we have in here is that MediaCorp continues to improve so that we continue to be relevant to our viewers and our audience" said Lucas Chow, CEO of MediaCorp.

He described the Vasantham full day channel as an example of how MediaCorp takes the input of viewers very seriously. "We are committing our resources to reach out to different audiences, not only do we produce four different groups of programmes but with this change, we can safely say that we have a full day Malay channel, a full day Indian channel, we already have 2 Chinese channels, an English channel and a News channel so with an additional children's channel so we cover all ages and all ethnic groups as well."

MediaCorp says it will continue to improve content for all its channels.

Channel NewsAsia for one, will step up audience interactivity, and tap on the growing band of citizen reporters with programmes like Blog TV and I-Journalist.

"Channel NewsAsia is the most watched news channel even among the cable channels where there are other international news options" said Woon Tai Ho, MD for Channel NewsAsia.

Mr Woon pointed out that Channel NewsAsia has been the most watched channel for the last five years especially amongst the group, Professionals, Managers, Executives and Businessmen or PMEBs. "If you look at the highest among the PMEBs, households with $5,000 then we are the most watched even among entertainment channels."

With its recently launched strategic partnerships with other media companies in the region, MediaCorp is confident it will have new value-content for audiences.

In the works is Channel 5's expanded range of locally produced content in new genres such as long form dramas and the launch of its Mobile 5 service for viewers on the go.

Chinese Channel 8, will offer mass appeal programmes such as Love Blossoms, Little Nonya, Record Breakers and Idol Mum, while Suria will increase its locally produced Malay language dramas and include more interactive elements. -CNA