Singapore Unveils Bold Plans to Propel Media Sector

Singapore's ambitions to be a global media city got a mighty boost on Tuesday with new plans to strengthen the media ecosystem, fuel the creation of innovative content and services with global appeal and develop world-class talents within Singapore.

These latest efforts are part of Singapore’s national media blueprint, the Singapore Media Fusion Plan (SMFP), which was officially launched at BroadcastAsia 2009. The blueprint supports the country's transition to a creative economy by laying the directions to transform it into a trusted global capital for New Asia Media. Dr Christopher Chia, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA), said the blueprint “gears up Singapore companies to respond to the fresh opportunities in today’s new world order by enabling the creation of New Asia Media, be it content, services or applications, that resonate with the world, whilst leveraging on Singapore’s strengths and strategic location as an East-West gateway.”

In connecting Singapore to the world,  MDA and SingTel have established a strategic partnership that will see SingTel’s Broadcast Innovation Centre (BIC) connected seamlessly to Mediapolis@one-north, to offer high-speed distribution services of up to 100Mbps. This will enable the tenants of Mediapolis@one-north to transmit their content  overseas cost-effectively and efficiently to major media centres in the world, thus facilitating worldwide access to Asian content.

With a key plank of the SMFP being talent development, media talents will also receive support from the MDA’s new programme called Media Training & Attachment (META) for manpower upgrading and training opportunities.  

Contributing to the exciting developments in the media sector,  leading industry companies such as Microsoft, Motorola and Eon Reality, with the support of the MDA, have come together to form a FutureTV partner network. Co-chaired by MediaCorp and StarHub, this network is jointly calling for proposals for new ideas which are further expected to spur the creation of more personalised and interactive experiences on the familiar goggle box.

As an example of the innovative services that could come true under the FutureTV initiative, a user could watch a movie seamlessly, first at a cinema, then on the cellphone while on the train, and finishing it on his TV set when he reaches home.

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