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SINGAPORE: Singapore's Information, Communications and the Arts Ministry said there's no evidence MediaCorp has engaged in anti-competitive behaviour that warrants functional separation of its business units.
The acting minister in charge was responding to Nominated MP Calvin Cheng's suggestion to separate MediaCorp's broadcast and production functions to allow for competition.
Public service programmes have been produced by MediaCorp as part of the Media Development Authority's (MDA) annual funding.
Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew acknowledged that a vibrant media industry does not depend on MediaCorp alone.
He said that in the funding given to MediaCorp, a minimum number of hours of content is already outsourced to independent production companies.
He said: "Since 2007, MDA has also started to commission public service programmes directly where production companies and MediaCorp's in-house production units can compete to pitch programme ideas to MDA for funding support.
“To date, some 350 hours of public service programmes have been commissioned, most of which were awarded to independent production houses.
"What we are trying to do is actually make sure that we give enough opportunities to gradually grow the independent production houses and to make sure they reach a certain level of sophistication that they can not only do work that is commissioned by Singapore whether directly by MDA or through MediaCorp but also to work increasingly with companies outside of Singapore.
“For our PSB programmes, close to 40 per cent of the local PSB hours funded by MDA, already goes to the independent production houses and that is channelled through MediaCorp.
“Separately we also have an amount of money that the independent production houses and MediaCorp compete directly for - programmes that we think are going to be beneficial, programmes that will be aired by MediaCorp on our local TV. So this is part of what we do to try and grow the ecosystem here and indeed some of these companies are reaching a state where they are able to stand on their feet and compete globally.”
For instance, he said that many TV and radio artistes are not directly employed by MediaCorp.
Mr Lui added: “MediaCorp also outsources many complementary activities such as dancers or back-up singers. Overall, there is both business opportunities and competition at various levels of the media production value chain."
Public Service programmes have a larger objective and that is to foster social cohesion as well as a sense of national identity.
For example, Little Nyonya has done well in overseas markets.
As for Vasantham, MediaCorp's Tamil language channel has also done well.
Sam Tan, Parliamentary Secretary for the Information, Communications and the Arts Ministry, said: "While there is competition from cable TV channels such as Sun TV and Zee TV, Vasantham has consistently garnered the highest channel reach among Indian viewers who watch both free to air and cable TV.
“MDA will continue to work with the broadcast industry to ensure that the variety and quality of TV programmes are constantly improved especially for local productions.
“This is also in MediaCorp's commercial interest as it is such local content that allows local channels to build their unique branding and differentiate themselves from competitors.”
In response to concerns that the magazine publishing industry is dominated by just MediaCorp and SPH, Mr Lui refuted this and said there are 100 other publishers which account for more than 8,000 titles while the two companies account for only one per cent of these publications. - CNA/vm
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