Cohesive and Inclusive Society
Public service broadcast in Singapore

Over the years, public service broadcast (PSB) programmes have connected the Singapore public, informing and engaging audiences with a wide genre of programmes.

These include news, current affairs, documentaries, sports, dramas, children’s programmes and arts programmes. Informative PSB programmes have also presented, via a Singapore perspective, world events and cultures.

In the year of review, MDA’s PSB funding to MediaCorp resulted in the provision of about 2,400 hours of original, local PSB programmes in four languages over the seven free-to-air TV channels. These local productions represented the creative efforts of over 57 independent production companies as well as MediaCorp’s in-house production teams.

Collectively, these programmes were watched by about 4.3 million Singapore viewers. Web-only content and PSB programmes made available for online viewing garnered some 4.4 million views.

Some well-received and notable PSB programmes were Channel 5’s “live” coverage and in-house produced daily highlights of the 2011 SEA Games featuring Singapore athletes, which drew 1.95 million viewers⁸, and The Oath (行医), a Channel 8 drama produced by local TV production company WaWa Pictures which reached 915,000 viewers with its well-developed characters and high production values. Theerpugal was a popular Tamil PSB programme. It is an information series that explains the background and details of notable Singapore court cases. The programme contained dramatised segments interspersed with interviews of lawyers that handled the cases.

The year also saw the remake of the popular 1980s children’s series, Mat Yoyo. The children’s series was previously only aired in Malay but MediaCorp redeveloped and adapted the pre-school series into the other main languages.

Mat Yoyo was not only commended for its lively song and dance, and storytelling segments that appealed to pre-schoolers, it also struck a chord with parents who enjoyed its nostalgic value. With the creation of related online content, publishing and merchandising, a transmedia approach was adopted to build up the revamped programme’s audience following and brand appeal.

Video Gallery

PSB productions and talents from local TV production companies were also recognised overseas. August Pictures’ The Activist’s Journey – Japan’s Homeless, a poignant look at the poor and destitute in Japan, won a Finalist Certificate in the Community Portrait at the New York Festivals – World’s Best TV & Films 2012.

At the same event, local production company, Very! won the Gold World Medal in the History and Society category with the feature The End/Beginning – Cambodia. The show, about the Khmer Rouge, took a different angle in telling the story through the use of illustrations and graphics instead of archived footage.

Singapore, a host to international public broadcasters

Being an important meeting place for public broadcast organisations, Singapore hosted the 20th Public Broadcasters International Conference for the first time in October 2011.

Organised by MediaCorp and supported by MDA, the conference attracted more than 200 participants from 20 public broadcasting networks worldwide. It addressed common challenges and highlighted future opportunities faced by public service broadcasters.

Ms Grace Fu, then Senior Minister of State (Information, Communications and the Arts, and Environment and Water Resources), opened the conference by urging public service broadcasters to ride on the opportunities presented by various content delivery platforms to expand their reach. She also emphasised that public broadcasters had to invest in the “fundamentals” of content and talent.

Reviewing Public Service Broadcast
In October 2010, an eight-member PSB Review Panel was set up to review the improvements to the delivery of PSB and recommend ways to maximise the reach and impact of PSB in Singapore, in view of challenges brought about by media convergence.

In March 2012, Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), and chairman of the Panel, announced that the Panel had submitted its recommendations to MICA. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister, MICA, announced in July 2012, that the Government had accepted most of the Panel’s recommendations for implementation that focused on raising the quality of PSB productions and extending its reach to counter the impact of audience fragmentation.

Implementing the Panel’s recommendations, MDA worked with MediaCorp to develop pilots for PSB to boost programme quality through audience-tested programme formats.

The PSB Contestable Funds Scheme, a revamp of the previous Public Service Content scheme, was introduced for MDA to identify and invite more eligible local broadcasters, including non-FTA broadcasters, to commission original PSB content.

In so doing, independent production houses benefit from an expanded playing field and consumers are better served with PSB programmes being made available on multiple local broadcast and new media platforms.

Taking a long-term view, MDA enhanced efforts to nurture creative talent such as TV producers, scriptwriters and directors through courses and overseas attachment programmes.

In the same vein, MDA also put in place a revised PSB intellectual property (IP) ownership framework that came into effect in July 2012 to accord such ownership to IP creators of original PSB programmes, while fundamental PSB objectives such as accessibility of programmes to the public continue to be met.

⁸ PSB programme viewership is based on Kantar Media Television Audience Measurement system