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SINGAPORE : With sports getting a bigger profile in Singapore, sports on television is scoring big too. Its local free-to-air content has gone up by some 30 per cent this year and more platforms are riding the wave.
Sports has shifted into higher gear in Singapore in recent years.
This year, it got a boost on free-to-air television, with MediaCorp's production "Sports@SG" adding another 18 hours to the minimum 60 hours required on local TV per year.
Last year, the Media Development Authority set aside S$1 million for the Sports Media Fund. This was to increase sports coverage across various platforms - resulting in 80 hours of content on Pay TV, mobile and the Internet.
And there is still money for others keen to jump onto the bandwagon, with the Youth Olympics next year.
Seah Wee Thye, deputy director, Public Service Broadcast, Media Development Authority, said: "About 40 per cent of the seed fund - the Sports Media Fund - has been utilised, so we still have some funds not utilised yet. And we are still receiving very good proposals from the industry, and we are working closely with the SSC (Singapore Sports Council) to support these programmes."
One of the smaller players who gained from the fund is Mega Media. It produced various programmes covering netball, motorsports and grassroots football aired on cable TV.
Jonathan Foo, managing director, Mega Media, said: "We believe that sports content in Singapore can grow. There is a demand for it definitely and we want to bring people who participate in sports to become the viewers as well. So you are just not watching it, but you are also getting involved in the action that you are watching."
And the sports industry is set to grow - when Singapore hosts the International Sports Convention for Television and New Media, or Sportel, for the first time next year.
SportelAsia will be held in Singapore in March at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It will see some of the top level executives in international sporting content coming to Singapore. And the island was chosen as a venue because it has established a reputation for hosting world-class sports events. - CNA/ms
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