No more monopoly for MediaCorp
Production 5 susbsid ready to make the jump to o'seas English-lingo fare
True, it was done cautiously, by awarding a TV license to Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), a newspaper company that had also enjoyed a monopoly of its own. Media Corp , in turn, was issued a newspaper license.
SPH immediately set up a $29 million broadcasting unit, MediaWorks, and tapped former MediaCorp chief Lee Cheok Yew to head it. He has already signaled plans for an English-language entertainment channel and another in Chinese, and aims to secure 30% of TV ad revenues within three years.
The timing of the liberalization was perhaps fortunate, coming after the dust had settled on a restructuring that began in 1998 aimed at bringing the then Television Corp. of Singapore up to speed in an industry that was changing with the convergence of computing, communications and media technologies. It was also a move to prepare the company to develop new markets.
The restructuring included rebranding its channels last year and reorganizing into seven strategic business units.
In March, the company, revealed that it would go public by 2002. "Listing will subject us to market forces and discipline," explains Lim Hup Seng, CEO of MediaCorp.
The new discipline led the company to retrench 210 of its 3,051 staff in April, because they could not move fast enough "to help the company make the quantum leap," says MediaCorp vice president of group communication Richard Tan.
This quantum leap includes a push by its subsid Channel NewsAsia to venture into the region. MediaCorp plans to spend $100 million-$150 million on the effort over the next five years, and expects to reach 5 million households in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Australia when it gets beamed by satellite in September.
The competitive emphasis also means that MediaCorp Studios, which includes the Chinese Drama Unit and Production 5, which makes English-language entertainment programs, are being run as businesses rather than simple content creators for the Chinese-lingo Channel 8 and the English entertainment Channel 5.
Now, says Production 5 vice president Daniel Yun, "it's important to look also at how we can make ourselves viable." On the positive side, "it is freer -- we can produce for anyone other than Channel 5."
To date, Production 5, which specializes in English drama and sitcoms, has expanded its scope with sports programming for cable company SCV as well as Channel NewsAsia.
It is also keen to make TV features and is "experimenting with miniseries," says Yun. "But the most important areas would be co-productions with Canada, Europe, the U.S. and Australia, who were never partners with us before."
Yun admits that this new direction "presents its own challenges," but Production5's competence in English and its experience -- it has been producing English programs since 1993 -- are an asset.
"Every time we show (people from traditional English markets) something, they're surprised," he says, smiling. "They expect everything in Chinese, and they don't expect English sitcoms, and for that price. They are very attracted."
Among Yun's upcoming sitcoms are "Making Love," which is about how the staff in a dating agency look for their own romance, and "Decision by Committee," which laughs at the politicking, groveling and sabotage in a corporation.
A half-hour episode of "Making Love" costs $23,000-$26,000.
So while the competition created by the liberalization will probably drive up MediaCorp's foreign programming costs for its entertainment channels and perhaps lower advertising rates for content businesses like Production 5, this rivalry could translate into new opportunities.
