SINGAPORE BROADCASTING CORPORATION (Increase in budget allocation for non-profit making programmes)

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon asked the Minister for Information and the Arts, in view of the surpluses accumulated by the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation as revealed in its 1992/93 Annual Report, whether the SBC will increase its budget allocation for non-profit making programmes, such as public education and cultural programmes and, if so, what percentage of its budget will be allocated for these purposes.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: SBC has always given importance to programmes serving national objectives. Non-profit programmes consist of Public Service Broadcasts (PSBs) and locally produced dramas. Besides public education and cultural programmes, PSBs also include sports, children's programmes and all Malay and Tamil broadcasts. In FY 93, the cost of PSBs and locally produced dramas came to 71% of SBC's total budget. PSBs and locally produced dramas on television make up 49% of SBC's total TV transmission hours.

SBC will continue to raise the quality and quantity of PSBs and locally produced dramas. For example, it will increase the number of English and Chinese news bulletins next year. SBC will also be producing English dramas on a regular basis and at some cost, because it is important to reduce our dependence on Hollywood. As announced earlier, SBC will be increasing the transmission hours of Malay programmes, including extending the daily Malay news from 20 to 30 minutes. SBC 12 will extend daytime transmissions and introduce children's educational programmes. Channel 12's cultural offerings will also be increased. SBC will be announcing details of these improvements next month.

At present, SBC's deficit for non-profit programmes like PSBs and local dramas is met from licence fees and an annual grant from the Government. SBC does not use the surpluses it has built up to fund these programmes, as this would affect its future effectiveness. These surpluses are not large compared to its investment needs. SBC will spend them on upgrading and expansion, for example, the new Bukit Batok facility which will cost well over $100 million. SBC needs more studios and production facilities. It is planning to develop an overseas production facility in China. SBC must also prepare for digital audio broadcasts, and later on, high-definition television. SBC's long term challenge is to upgrade its channels to enable them to compete and retain viewers when new channels proliferate as a result of satellite and cable television.

When SBC is corporatised into separate companies, a new regulatory authority will be established to be called the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA). Among other things, SBA will determine the amount of public service broadcasts and locally produced dramas needed and subsidise television and radio companies accordingly. SBA will get its revenues for this purpose from licence fees and the Government.

Dr Toh Keng Kiat (Nominated Member): May I ask the Minister whether efforts will be made to improve the quality, instead of just the quantity, of the broadcasts, especially on Channel 8. Currently, there is a serial on gambling and anti-social activities, such as drinking, to solve social problems have also been promoted.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: The pressure to increase quality is ceaseless, not least because the competition is relentless. As to whether anti-social themes should be introduced on TV dramas, I think we have to strike a balance between being realistic and being moralistic. We want to maintain a certain moral tone on our television programmes, and to have messages which further the cause of our social development, but we cannot over-moralise on television because that is the quickest way to kill interest. Drinking, prostitution and gambling are part of the drama of life. Unless these are inter-woven into the dramas of SBC, SBC's dramas would not be interesting and will have very low viewership.