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Chapter Three: Singapore and its Television Broadcasting Environments
This chapter will provide an introduction into Singapore’s television industries by first introducing Singapore’s general environments and identifying factors that are capable of influencing Singapore’s television broadcasting environments.
3.1. Political environment
Singapore was a colony of the British Empire from 1924 to 1963 where it was occupied by Japan in World War II from 1942 to 1945. Despite being self-governing internally after the war, leaders in Singapore sought total independence from the British and formed a federation with neighboring country Malaya in 1963 to prove its ability in being independent. However, it separated from Malaya due to ‘ethnic and political incompatibility’ and became a totally independent state in 1965 (Edge, 2004).
The legislative system in Singapore is mainly based on English common law with a parliamentary government where the law is modified to suit local contexts. Business Monitor International (2012) stated that Singapore has a stable political system, despite its reputation being not a ‘properly functioning democracy’ and an ‘overprotective nanny-state’ which heavily represses ‘opposition voices’. However, increasing efforts are observed in recent years to enhance freedom of expression and responding to calls for more openness in the political system.
While the ministries are responsible of the macro-development of the country in its respective sectors, the government establishes autonomous agencies within the respective ministries to further develop, regulate and monitor the micro-development of the sectors.
Regulatory Aspects. With particular relevance to the media industries, Choi and Yeo (2001) stated that the underlying paradigm for regulating of the media industries is based on the
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‘Powerful Effects Model’ of the media, where the media is seen to have a powerful influence on the population and individuals are easily susceptible to media influences. Ang (2007) classified Singapore’s political system as ‘Confucian, paternalistic and neo-authoritarian’, where the government enforces strict laws and maintains stringent censorship standards with regards to the media industries. Despite Singapore’s Constitution guarantees that citizens have the right of freedom of speech and expression, the government has the power to limit the right for the purpose of ‘maintaining national security, public order and morality’ (Choi & Yeo, 2001). The government justifies such tight rein on the media industries due to the ‘uniqueness and vulnerability’ of the society and ‘characteristically Asian values’ of the population (Ang, 2007).
Macro-development of Singapore’s media industries begins with the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) who oversees the macro-development of information, communication and arts industries in Singapore. It is the parent ministry to Media Development Authority (MDA), an autonomous agency created as the result of a merger between the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Films & Publications Department and the Singapore Film Commission.
The television industries are regulated and directly monitored by MDA through the Broadcasting Act passed by the Parliament while another autonomous agency, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) regulates and manages information, communication and technological infrastructure such as the internet, radio spectrum and other telecommunications infrastructure through the Telecommunications Act. IDA is also in charge of approving licenses for private satellite up-linking services.
Under the Broadcasting Act, any appointment for chief executive officer, director or any chairman of board of directors in a media company must be approved by the MDA. Also, unless
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approved by MDA, no person can hold more than 12 percent of shares in a broadcasting company. The figure below shows the regulatory structure of Singapore’s television industries.
Figure 3.1. Regulatory structure of Singapore’s television industries
Singapore does not have satellite television broadcasting but the authorities encourage media companies and broadcasters to establish operations in the country, where they can up-link their television content to regional satellites using Singapore’s relevant facilities at ST Teleport, SingTel Telecast, MediaCorp Technologies and Ascent Media Group, or operate their own satellite uplink facility where they are required to apply for a license from IDA. There is no foreign ownership restriction but companies not based nor registered in Singapore are required to appoint local agents and pay a performance bond of SGD$50,000 (approximately USD$40,000 at the currency exchange rate of S$1.26=US$1) with MDA. MDA will then coordinate with IDA on the operations of satellite uplink facilities and obtain the necessary clearance(s) on behalf of the applicants. Companies are requested to execute self-regulation in terms of content, ensuring compliance to programme codes and local laws in recipient countries, and consideration to the political, religious, cultural and racial sensitivities of the recipient countries.
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Licenses and content codes. With particular relevance to Singapore’s television
industries, MDA issues broadcasting and TV-receive only licenses, develops policy guidelines as well as implement conduct and content codes which all players in the industry have to abide by.
Applicants must first obtain a broadcasting license from MDA, under which broadcasting frequencies will then be assigned. Applicants are also required to apply for a telecommunication infrastructure for broadcasting system from IDA. Following which, MDA will then coordinate with IDA to obtain clearances on the allocation of broadcasting spectrum for the applicants.
The planning and channeling of the broadcasting spectrum is carried out at the international level through International Telecommunications Union (ITU), regional level through Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (SBU) and at the bilateral level through ‘border coordination’ with bordering countries. In Singapore, usage plans for broadcasting services, including spectrum allocation for digital audio and video broadcasting has been established by IDA. The PAL analogue standard is used in Singapore but the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting is expected to free up significant amounts of spectrum for other uses. The relevant licenses, their requirements and the broadcasting spectrum established by IDA are shown in the tables below.
With the ‘proliferation of media content and delivery platforms’, MDA employs a co-regulatory approach towards the industries, encouraging the industries to ‘self-regulate’ and be
‘socially responsible and to take adequate steps to ensure that content meets with community standards’. MDA do not pre-censor content but issue programme codes and content guidelines which are drafted after consulting with industry players and public advisory committees who represent Singapore’s community and social standards. These committees include the Program Advisory Committee and three other advisory committees who are specifically responsible for
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and is reliant on public feedback to be alerted on possible breaches to the codes and guidelines.Table 3.1. Types of subscription television broadcasting licenses in Singapore in 2012
Niche TV Licence Nationwide TV Licence
Licence duration 5 years 10 years
Number of Subscribers
(i) Daily reach of any single channel reaches up to 100,000 unique viewers; or (ii) Daily reach of broadcaster reaches up to 250,000 unique viewers.
This Threshold applies to Related Corporations.
No limit to the number of subscribers and/or viewers in Singapore.
Ownership No ownership conditions Subject to ownership conditions as stipulated in Part X of Broadcasting Act.
Must carry No must carry obligations Must carry obligations for enabling access to local Free-to-Air channels
Advertising revenue No cap on advertising revenue. Advertising revenue not to exceed 25% of Total Revenue.
Advertising time limit
A 14-minute-per-hour advertising time limit applies for channels with scheduled programming. This time limit is not applicable for VOD (video-on-demand) content and interactive advertising services.
Content guidelines The Subscription TV Programme Code applies if scheduled programmes are offered, while the VOD Programme Code applies if on-demand programmes are offered.
(Source: Media Development Authority, 2012)
Table 3.2. Broadcasting spectrum being used in Singapore by 2012
Service Band(MHz) Channel Bandwidth Status
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Media Market Conduct Code. On regulating the media industries, MDA implements the
Media Market Conduct Code (‘Conduct Code’), which is intended to establish clear guidelines on how media companies (or licensees) ought to conduct themselves in Singapore’s media industries. With the objectives of ‘enabling and maintaining fair market conduct and effective competition’, ‘ensure availability of a comprehensive range of quality media services’, ‘foster future investment and developments’ and the general principle of ‘safeguarding public interests’, the Conduct Code adopts a theoretical approach similar to that of Michael Porter’s Five Force model to establish relevant guidelines and recognize industry stakeholders such as entrants, competitors, suppliers, consumers and substitutes. The Conduct Code prescribes public interest obligations, duties of companies to end-consumers, prohibitions on unfair methods of competition, dominance and special obligations of dominant ‘persons’, prohibitions on agreements that restrict or distort competition, application procedures and criteria for consolidations, duties of companies to provide access to relevant resources, as well as procedures for dispute resolutions and etc. Appendix III shows relevant definitions for Singapore’s television industries in the Conduct Code.
General regulatory principles. The Conduct Code explicitly states that all Regulated Persons should first undertake private negotiations in good faith and self-regulate to all feasible extents. The authority states that any intervention will be taken under appropriate circumstances as it recognizes that level of competition is limited in Singapore’s media industries; certain companies may have abilities to exercise Significant Market Power; and there is a need to
‘develop effective competition for the benefit of consumers, to encourage innovations and to improve productivity in order to achieve public interest goals (MDA, 2011). The Conduct Code also states that, where appropriate and to any extents feasible, any decisions made by MDA will
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be transparent and provided with reasoned explanations, in consultations with other relevant authorities, non-discriminating and technology-neutral. The Authority also has the right to grant exemptions from any provisions of the Conduct Code and waive any requirements or criteria for companies (with conditions) if it deems that the circumstances require them.
Public interest obligations. MDA places heavy emphasis on the safeguarding of Public Interest in Singapore. Hence, the following public interest obligations are imposed: 1) free-to-Air (FTA) television licensees must broadcast events of National Significance; 2) FTA television licensees must not “hoard” specific programmes and must broadcast (under specific criteria by MDA) entire durations or significant portions of National sports events, the Olympics and other relevant programmes as specified by MDA; 3) Subscription television licenses must not obtain exclusive rights to specific programmes as specified by MDA; 4) Designated video archive operators are required to make their archives available to other persons on reasonable prices, terms and conditions; and 5) Any ‘Essential Resource’ required to provide a media service must be made available for access by other media licensees with reasonable and non-discriminatory prices, terms and conditions. The Conduct Code also states that all Regulated Persons must exercise certain duties to end-consumers such as providing quality service, accurate and timely bills, safeguarding subscriber service information from unauthorized uses, implementing reasonable service termination procedures and charges, as well as preventing charging of unsolicited services or equipment.
As of 2011, in view of the competition in Singapore’s subscription television industries too focused on acquiring exclusive content, the Cross-Carriage Measure is also imposed on subscription television licensees as part of public interest obligations in the Media Market Conduct Code.
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Competition and market dominance. In relation to competition in Singapore media industries, the Conduct Code states that unfair methods of competition are prohibited. Such methods include the use of media services to disseminate false or misleading claims and information; degrading other media licensee’s service availability or quality without legitimate justifications; interfering with other media licensee’s consumers, advertisers or ancillary media service providers, as well as engaging in predatory pricing or anti-competitive leveraging. Such methods are often unrelated to the availability, price or quality of the media services. Under appropriate circumstance involving affiliated companies which provide ancillary media services, MDA may require the respective Regulated Persons to ‘structurally separate its operations or assets’ and ‘adopt accounting or auditing separations, cost allocation rules and other forms of behavioral safeguards’ with its affiliates. Agreements that prevent, restrict or distort competition such as price fixing, allowing of coordinated responses to bids, market and consumer allocation, boycotting of businesses, agreeing on fixed resale prices and foreclosure of access are generally prohibited. Despite the above scenarios, MDA reserves the right to determine if any agreement is anti-competitive on a case-by-case basis and based on factors as stated in the Conduct Code.
With particular relevance to Consolidations, MDA recognizes that while mergers and acquisitions ‘harm competition’, can create or strengthen a Dominant Person and facilitate
‘unlawful collusion amongst competing persons’, they can also have pro-competitive effects such as creating economies of scale and scope. In proposing Horizontal Consolidations, MDA will employ a specific analytical framework examining the relevant market, market participants, market shares over time, market-specific factors and the estimated market share of the Post-Consolidation Entity.
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With relevance to Non-Horizontal Consolidations, MDA will consider factors such as the likelihood of development of effective competition, ability of competitors to access ‘upstream’
inputs and ‘downstream’ distribution channels, enhancing of portfolio power which may increase anti-competitive strategies and facilitate collusion in relevant media markets, likelihood of other persons entering the relevant media market, as well as possible increases in net economic efficiencies passable to consumers. Other factors such as changes in the legal or regulatory environments of the industries, introduction of new services or technologies, changing consumer patterns and other public interest factors will also be taken into consideration. However, regardless of the type of Consolidation proposed, MDA reserves the right to approve or reject the proposed Consolidation at its discretion with specific conditions and instructions.
Radio and Television (RTV) licenses. Households in Singapore have been required to
pay fees in order to be licensed for receiving television transmission signals in the households since 1963. Introduced as a form of tax for ‘luxury items’ back in the 1960s, the fees collected (S$110/household) were mainly channeled towards the production and broadcasting of public service broadcast content promoting social and national harmony. Such content included news, current affairs, sports and children's programmes in the four official languages (Mandarin, English, Bahasa Malay and Tamil), as well as locally produced English and Chinese dramas.
Over the years, controversies arose as citizens were reluctant to pay the fees, commenting that they were not watching the respective programmes due to the availability of subscription television. As of 2010, about 67 percent of the fees collected were used in the content production while 11 percent went towards fee collection, 15 percent towards industry development and 7 percent towards establishing reserves for future PSB and content development funding.
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However, the RTV licenses were abolished permanently in 2011, a trend that was also observed in other countries due to the rise of cable television. Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam stated that the more than 99 percent of households are owning television sets and licenses were ‘losing their relevance’ as increasing media convergence was allowing Singaporeans to receive relevant broadcast content over multiple platforms that do not require license fees, such as through the internet and on mobile devices (Chua, 2011b). After the announcement, the government further conducted a massive refunding of the fees back to the households. It was also announced that future funding for public service broadcasting would be provided by the government directly.