MediaCorp is the largest broadcaster in Singapore, and with Singapore likely to be one of the early adopters of 3-D TV in the Asia-Pacific region, MediaCorp likely will be at the cutting edge of the technology. MediaCorp also plans to launch a channel in North America in 2011 as part of the operator to move beyond its Singaporean roots.
Chang Long Jong, deputy CEO, Television, MediaCorp, discussed the challenges ahead and how the broadcaster will build on its already strong position in its home market and become one of the strongest media companies in Asia.
VIA SATELLITE: What are the major initiatives that MediaCorp is working on for content delivery?
Jong: We are looking to launch our own branded channels overseas which exploits the long tail strategy of appealing to niche audiences in the worldwide market. Plans are in place to launch a drama channel next year in North America, and an entertainment channel is in the pipeline. With the centralization of our distribution unit, which sells all MediaCorp-produced content across genres, we have been able to explore a lot more initiatives and opportunities beyond our current markets/language. We have begun looking to the North America, European and Middle Eastern markets. A new area of success and opportunity for us is in the kids genre. We have distributed to Astro in Malaysia and are working on further collaboration and distribution in Malaysia.
Another phenomenon that is delivering our content to the worldwide market is the Internet. The Web has opened up a new delivery channel for our content. The Internet needs content, and they need it in high volumes. We have syndicated our content to partners such as Baidu in China.
VIA SATELLITE: What are MediaCorp’s plans in 3-D TV?
Jong: As the national broadcaster, we are constantly exploring new avenues to deliver valued content for our viewers. We are monitoring the developing trends in 3-D TV technology. As there are currently various standards, MediaCorp will conduct trials once there is more certainty on the prevailing technology standard. As we are still in the frontier of development, it will be some time before it becomes widely adopted. Like how we have done for high-definition a few years back, we will introduce 3-D slowly to our viewers and listen to their feedback so as to understand the characteristics of 3-D viewing. One challenge could be the fact that viewers will have to wear expensive glasses to watch 3-D, which might affect its potential for wide adoption, even though the price of 3-D TV might drop. Currently, there are several standards with passive and active glasses, and there might be a day where glasses would not be needed at all for 3-D viewing. This is quite different with the advent of HD, where major markets embrace the technology which quickly became the industry standard. We do see 3-D in the future, but for now, we are thinking of ways to fully exploit HD to engage our viewers from a technological point of view.
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