JMSC Journal

The Media Corporation of Singapore (MCS) is a holding company for TCS, STV12 and RCS. The government, thus, has a monopoly on television broadcasting and directly holds most of the radio channels in Singapore.

At present, TCS 5 and TCS 8 share around 82% of the audience during prime time whilst RCS collectively reach out to 2.1 million of Singaporeans weekly.

Structure and future move

At present, MCS has a Group President & CEO, under whom there are seven Strategic Business Units, namely (1) Television Corporation of Singapore, (2) Radio Corporation of Singapore, (3) Singapore Television Twelve, (4) MediaCorp Studios, (5) MediaCorp News, (6) MediaCorp Interactive, and (7) MediaCorp Publishing.

These seven strategic business units were formed after a restructure of the group in August 1999 to fight competition from new media entrants and to develop new markets. Among these are Television Corporation of Singapore, which operates channels 5, 8 and SportsCity, and MediaCorp News, which operates Channel NewsAsia.

According to David Lim, Minister of State of Information and the Arts, MCS is preparing to list on the Singapore Exchange within the next year or two. He said the rate of change in the media industry was accelerating and MCS would have to move even faster.(Endnote 21)

For the Channel NewsAsia (CAN), MCS has planned to expand their services to pan-Asia market. Aiming to feature the voices and perspectives of Asia, it was launched in March 1999. Viewers in Asia will be able to get the signal with a satellite dish or by subscribing to TV cable networks in their respective countries. However, those viewers in Singapore, which bans satellite dishes, will only receive the Channel with programmes specially designed for Singaporeans, which are, subjected to tight censorship by the Singapore government.(Endnote 22)

According to a Straits Times' article, "MediaCorp asks 210" by Karamjit Kaur on 29 April 2000, MCS has just terminated the employment of 210 employees. Eight in 10 of those were men, aged 40 years and above.

Richard Tan, the vice-president of Group Communications said it was not a cost-cutting measure.

"The new fast-moving media industry will encompass... telecommunications, computing and broadcasting technology," he said. "It will require people who have the skills and the mindset to help the company make the quantum leap."

Singapore Cable Vision

Ownership

Singapore Cable Vision (SCV), launched in June 1995, offers pay-TV on 39 channels. It offers 39 channels in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Bahasa Malaysia/ Indonesia, Hindi, Tamil and German. It was accessible to 713,000 households at the end of 1997.

The first consortium, formed in 1991, was made up of Media Corporation of Singapore (65%) and Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (35%). In 1995, a new four-member consortium took over the ownership of Singapore Cable Vision Ltd. They are MCS (31%), Singapore Technologies Pte Ltd (24%), Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) (20%) and Media One (25%).

According to the SPH's press release, SPH has increased its shareholding in SCV from 20 to 26.7 per cent.(Endnote 23)

With 100% government-owned MCS and partially-government-owned SPH as their major shareholders, SCV is indirectly owned by the government.

Endnotes:

21. "Local TV station gears up for listing", The Straits Times, 9 March 2000

22. "Channel NewsAsia'-by Asian, for Asian viewer", Jakarta Post, 22 March 2000

23. Increase in shareholding in SCV Ltd, SPH Press Release, 21 Jan 2000

24.http://www.ntucworld.org.sg/

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