Percentage of Movies and TV Programmes on Free-to-air TV Shown in Chinese Dialects

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what percentage of movies and TV programmes on free-to-air television are shown in Chinese dialects; (b) of these, what is the percentage as further broken down by the type of Chinese dialect; and (c) how has the percentage changed over the last five years.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Dialect content is allowed to a limited extent on free-to-air (FTA) television to support the prevailing language policy of Mandarin as one of the four official languages. This includes a dedicated two-hour belt of full dialect programmes every Friday late morning on Mediacorp’s Channel 8, which comprises over 90 hours, or 1% of Channel 8’s total transmission hours per year. This has remained constant over the years.

The breakdown of dialects used is not tracked as, in most instances, a mix of dialects may be used during a programme.