FUNDING OF MALAY AND TAMIL TV PROGRAMMES

FUNDING OF MALAY AND TAMIL TV PROGRAMMES:

(Period of review): 3.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (a) how often the Media Development Authority (MDA) reviews the funding for public broadcasting of Malay and Tamil programmes; (b) when was the last time the funding was reviewed for both types of programmes and what was the increase in funding to improve the quality of programmes by MediaCorp; and (c) compared to the

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English and Mandarin channels, what is the proportion of re-run programmes on the Malay and Tamil channels during prime time and off-peak periods.

The Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (RAdm [NS] Lui Tuck Yew): Sir, Suria and Vasantham are important channels that reflect our multi-cultural heritage and multi-racial society. They offer relevant Malay and Tamil programmes for these two communities. To support these two channels, the Media Development Authority (MDA) provides public service broadcast (PSB) funding for the production and acquisition of quality programmes, such as news, current affairs, drama and children's programmes.

Together with MediaCorp, MDA carries out annual reviews of the funding for PSB programmes across all MediaCorp's TV channels. These annual reviews ensure that the programmes continue to be of high standards and of relevance to Singaporeans.

MDA also conducts periodic studies to assess the state of MediaCorp's TV channels. The launch of Vasantham as a standalone channel in 2008 was a recommendation of such a study. As a result, Vasantham's local programme hours have more than doubled from 30 hours to 65 hours a week, and the channel also offers a wider variety of Tamil programmes.

To provide greater support for quality local Malay and Tamil programmes, MDA has increased 2010 PSB funding for Suria and Vasantham by about 12% and 27% respectively compared to two years ago, ie, FY2008. Besides supporting MediaCorp's launch of Vasantham as a full-fledged channel, the increase in funding had improved the quality and diversity of

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programmes for both channels, and reduced the repeat rates.

On repeat rates during prime time and off prime time, these vary across MediaCorp's channels depending on the strategy adopted for each channel. For repeat rates during prime time, Vasantham's is now at a level comparable to that for Channel 8. For Suria , whilst the repeat rate is higher, it is comparable to Channel 5 and CNA.

Ultimately, the true test is whether the viewership for Suria and Vasantham has improved. On this count, both Suria and Vasantham have done well, increasing their viewership over the past few years. In 2007, Suria's viewership averaged about 40,000 Malay viewers during prime time; this has increased by more than 65% to about 67,000 viewers last year. Over the same period, Vasantham's prime time viewership, which averaged about 24,000 Indian viewers before its launch as a standalone channel, has increased by about 50% to 36,000 viewers currently.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to assure the House that MDA will continue to review its funding support for PSB programmes on Suria and Vasantham , as well as the rest of MediaCorp's channels, so that Singaporeans have every opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of high quality local programmes.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for his clarification as well as the increased funding for the FY2010 budget. I just want to check with the Minister – with increased funding, does MDA also monitor the quality of current affairs programmes to support public communication as well as Government communication? The two channels face increasing pressure from the cable TV providers to go into entertainment but I think there is also a role where we provide public service broadcast funding to ensure more current

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affairs programmes and Government communications.

RAdm [NS] Lui Tuck Yew: Indeed the funding goes largely towards supporting quality programmes in the areas of news, current affairs, children's education programmes and so on. We have a panel comprising a good mix of members of the public, both from the professional as well as the non-professional sectors to help us, basically evaluate the quality of the programmes to take into account feedback from the public and to help us do the assessment of whether the range, the mix and the quality of the programmes are appropriate.