Singapore earmarks $630 million for ambitious public service program push

The staggering outlay is 35% more than the previous five-year funding and will be spent to enhance the country's public service broadcast.

Covering the FY 2012 to 2016, the new allotment was committed by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) after the Public Service Broadcast (PSB) Review Panel forwarded recommendations to enhance the quality and increase the reach of PSB programmes. 

The panel determined that "It is quality PSB content that will attract, engage and sustain audiences."

"Free-to-air (FTA) TV, which is the dominant local media platform, will continue to play a key role in the delivery of PSB programmes. At the same time, the Government should leverage on the potential that the Internet and non-FTA platforms offer to extend the reach of PSB programmes to more Singaporeans," the panel added.

"The development of a strong national FTA broadcaster with wide reach and a sustainable independent production sector will be important aspects of an effective PSB delivery framework," it noted further.

The panel proposed that the additional resources be spent to improve the quality of local PSB productions on FTA TV, including the introduction of audience-tested pilots.

Given these recommendations, MICA said that "The majority of the funding provided by MICA will be channelled to raising the quality of local PSB productions on FTA TV. Specifically, the allocation will focus on areas that will boost production quality, such as research and story-planning. The Media Development Authority (MDA) will also introduce and fund the production of programme pilots that will be audience-tested before production begins."

"MICA recognises the potential of the Internet and local pay TV platforms in extending the reach of PSB programmes. To facilitate this, the MDA will set up a contestable funds scheme. The scheme will take into account the reach of the participating platform as well as ensure that PSB content carried by any non-FTA participating platform will subsequently be made available to the public," MICA added.

A sustained training plan will also be put in place to nurture creative talent, particularly for story-planning and scriptwriting via the MDA Talent Assistance scheme.

MICA said that the majority of the recommendations, such as the introduction of audience-tested pilots and the contestable funds scheme, will be implemented within this year by MDA.