S$380m allocated yearly by government over past 5 years to help Mediacorp reach local audiences: Josephine Teo

SINGAPORE: The government allocated about S$380 million (US$293 million) annually over the past five financial years to help Mediacorp to reach domestic audiences across four languages, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo in parliament on Wednesday (Oct 15).

Mediacorp, which is the parent company of CNA, reached more than 90 per cent of the local population through its owned and operated platforms as well as through social media, with more than 75 per cent of its audiences satisfied with its services, said the minister.

"This is lower than the annual funding of approximately S$750 million allocated to the national broadcasters of Finland and Denmark, which have similar population sizes to Singapore," added Mrs Teo.

She was responding to questions from Member of Parliament (MP) Foo Cexiang (PAP-Tanjong Pagar) who had asked about the amount of government funding provided for public service broadcasting in each of the past five years and which programmes received such funding.

Mr Foo also asked the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) whether it had considered the need to "recalibrate" the amount of government funding provided in order to "boost the popularity" of locally created content. 

"Our public service media play an important role to inform, educate, and connect Singaporeans," added Mrs Teo. 

"They provide trusted and timely sources of information to form a common basis for social discourse. They also reflect our multicultural fabric and way of life."

Mrs Teo said that the government provides funding for the overall operations of public service media entitles, rather than individual programmes in order to allow them to "effectively adapt and innovate in the fast-changing media landscape".

Responding to Mr Foo's point on funding local programmes, she said MDDI has moved from solely tracking Mediacorp's TV reach to a "broader reach metric across all Mediacorp's platforms and social media platforms".

This is because of the changing consumption habits of domestic audiences and also Mediacorp's broader network strategy, she said.

"For example, Mediacorp's TV reach dropped by about 10 per cent over the last decade or so, but unique video viewers on meWATCH has increased by about 80 per cent in the same period," said Mrs Teo, reiterating that public satisfaction with the broadcaster has held steady during this time. 

In a supplementary question, Mr Foo pointed out that the recent success of Mediacorp's TV programmes, such as Emerald Hill - The Little Nyonya Story, which had garnered domestic views that overtook popular Korean dramas and will be premiering on Chinese streaming platform Tencent at the end of the year.

He also hailed the accolades received by local actors at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei.

Mediacorp's achievements show that the future is bright "contrary to what naysayers say", said Mr Foo.

He asked if the government is prepared to give a "further boost", and support Mediacorp in more collaborations with international platforms such as Netflix.

In response, Mrs Teo said that being on streaming platforms such as Netflix help widen the reach of productions in Singapore and contribute to the "vibrancy" of the local ecosystem.

On top of commercial negotiations between production houses including Mediacorp and streaming services, authorities are providing support through the International Co-Production Fund, which was launched by Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in 2023, she added.

"What this programme does is to provide funding support to producers of local drama series to collaborate with their international counterparts ... scriptwriters, directors, producers," Mrs Teo said. 

"And the reason we want to do so is to enable a reach into a wider pool of talents that are available but more importantly, to create content that has potentially an audience beyond Singapore, even though the themes are very much anchored on Singapore." 

She said that the initiative has already supported some productions and the authorities will assess to what extent the support can be "sustained as well as expanded in the future".

"The government is committed to continue supporting our public service media to deliver high quality and trusted news and entertainment content to Singaporeans," said Mrs Teo.

"We will continue to ensure that government funding can adequately and effectively support our public service media in achieving their national mission."