I have been thinking about this recently: Ten years after 31 December 2004, I guess
there will once again be another television station in
Singapore.
Well, I know there was an attempt ten years ago when SPH was
given license to run television services, and it subsequently
flopped due to the financial losses it suffered. Nonetheless, I
think there will be another attempt soon, and it should be more
financially viable this time.
Well, it is regarding the [email protected], which Mediacorp will
relocate to from Caldecott Hill by year 2015 (next
year). When the
[email protected] is ready, Mediacorp will be
the anchor tenant of the development, rather than the sole user of
it.
I guess with the [email protected], the
government may once again open the television industry for another
Free-To-Air television to set up.
This time, it may use a model similar to how it opened the
telecommunications industry for M1 and Starhub to set up, where
Mediacorp occupies a majority of the
[email protected], while the other spaces at
the [email protected] are leased to new
television stations that are given license to run FTA television
services.
For the transmission of content, the new television stations
could use the same set of transmission facilities owned by
Mediacorp, similar to M1 and Starhub using the same set of
transmission facilities owned by Singtel.
This would no doubt reduce costs, since many of the operating
infrastructure are shared (new television stations would not have
to spend money to set up their own and can instead rent them, which
is cheaper.) and there can be some extent of Economies of Scale
(leading to costs savings) enjoyed.
If new television stations are set up this way, it could prevent
them from suffering financial losses like what SPH experienced ten
years ago.
Personally, I feel that during that four years when there was
competition in the free-to-air television industry, there was a
significant improvement in the content of FTA television
programmes. It was a pity that the competition back then was not
financially viable and SPH had to close down its television
business to stop making losses.
It would be good if there can once again be competition in
Singapore's Free-To-Air television industry, when the
[email protected] is ready. Hopefully, if there
is another round of competition, the competition can be financially
viable and can go on for as long as there is Free-To-Air television
in Singapore, rather than close down after a few years due to
financial losses incurred.
