Amount of Government Grants Received by Media Production Houses

Ms Janice Koh asked the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (a) what is the current number of independent media production houses that are actively operating in Singapore; (b) what is the number of production houses that receive Government grants each year for film and television projects over the last five years; and (c) what is the total amount of grants received by these production houses each year for such projects over the last five years.

Page: 923

Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Based on the latest available statistics, there were 590 companies engaged in film and video-related services in Singapore in 2010 10 . These services include film production, video filming, recording services and services pertaining to motion picture and video productions.

Over the past five years between 2007 and 2011, there were about 130 independent production companies that produced MDA-supported Public Service Broadcast (PSB) and non-PSB television and film productions.

Over this period, MDA disbursed about $235 million to these production companies in Singapore for locally-produced PSB television programmes as well as industry film and television projects.

Page: 924

Note(s) to Question No(s) 12:

10 Source: DOS.