FREE-TO-AIR SPORTS CHANNELS

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FREE-TO-AIR SPORTS CHANNELS: 4.

Miss Penny Low asked the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts in view of the upcoming Youth Olympic Games and our national agenda to cultivate the spirit of a sporting nation (a) whether he will consider having free-to-air sports channels; (b) if so, whether they will cover a wide spectrum of sports; and (c) if not, why.

The Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (Dr Lee Boon Yang): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for her interest in a Free-to-Air (or FTA) sports channel as a means of cultivating the spirit of a sporting nation.

In January 2000, MediaCorp (or TCS as it was known then) had launched an FTA sports channel called Sportscity. Members may not have remembered this, it is almost eight years ago, but actually they did launch a sports channel. This sports channel offered a range of sports content from local to international to instructional sports programmes. However, the channel was not commercially viable and incurred substantial losses due to low viewership, high content acquisition fees and the focus by advertisers on selected major sporting events rather than generic sports programming. The channel was revamped into City TV in 2001, with sports contents reduced to 60%. That also did not survive beyond a year.

Sir, the cost of operating a free-to-air sports channel is substantial and the bulk of the cost goes towards content acquisition and production costs. In particular, the cost of sports content has increased sharply. According to MDA, for major popular sports content such as football, the acquisition cost can go up to several hundred million dollars. For an FTA channel, such costs would have to

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be met in one of two ways or both: first, advertising and sponsorship revenues, and secondly, radio and television licence fees.

Sportscity has shown that commercial viability of an FTA sports channel based on advertising and sponsorship alone is difficult to achieve. To sustain an FTA channel that covers a wide range of sporting programmes, radio and TV licence fee would have to be increased significantly. This increase in radio and television licence fee would impact on all consumers, regardless of their individual viewing preference, in fact, regardless of whether they watch sports or not. This approach is not in the best interests of viewers and the general public.

Sir, instead, the sporting interests of consumers are being met on two fronts. First, for key sporting events of national significance, the Media Development Authority (MDA) ensures that all Singaporeans' and all consumers' interests are served by requiring these events to be made available for free-to-air television, so that everyone can watch these programmes. These include the recent Olympic Games and Southeast Asian Games. I would like to take the opportunity to assure Ms Low that the 2010 Youth Olympics will be a sports event that will receive free-to-air television coverage.

Secondly, for other sporting events, the needs of the consumers are better met with commercially viable, dedicated pay-TV channels so that consumers need only pay for what they want to watch and not be burdened with the high cost of a general free-to-air sports channel.