UK, Singapore to fund more web projects

The Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore and its UK partner have unveiled plans to jointly invest £50,000 (US$78,000) in online video projects and are calling for proposals.

MDA and the UK’s South West Screen (SWS) are to launch the second phase of their Multi-Platform Content Across Continents initiative, aimed at fostering partnerships between media companies in the two countries.

Under the next phase of the scheme, the two bodies will select five interactive multi-platform video projects and together invest £10,000 in each project. A call for proposals will take place next February.

Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s minister for information, communications and the arts, announced the initiative at the opening of the Asia Television Forum (ATF) earlier today.

The MDA/SWS scheme was launched last year and the selected projects for 2009 included Eco Gone Mad, a factual entertainment series by Singapore’s Apostrophe Films and the UK’s Junction K, and iLand, an animated series from Singapore’s Scrawl Studios and the UK’s Wonky Films.

The minister also announced that MDA and national Singaporean broadcaster MediaCorp will be joining forces to support local independent production companies in creating original content exclusively for online viewing.

MDA will co-invest up to 50% of the production budget of selected projects, which will be distributed on MediaCorp’s XinMSN online video platform and its own TV networks.

“The benefits of this initiative are multifold. Firstly, it provides a legitimate and dedicated digital channel through which local production companies can distribute their content. Secondly, advertisers will have a new medium to deliver marketing campaigns. Thirdly, online viewers will have a wider range of local entertainment content,” he said.

Other news announced by Tuck Yew this morning included the planned relocation of MediaCorp to Mediapolis, a 19-hectare media hub that is under construction and intended to bolster Singapore’s media landscape. The site is due to be completed in 2020 and MediaCorp’s move is expected to be completed by mid-2015.

“The move is expected to entice both local and overseas media businesses across the value chain – from creation, production and post-production – to also establish a presence in Mediapolis to participate in the many collaborative projects that will arise,” Tuck Yew said.

The minister also said that some 2,600 delegates from 50 countries will attend ATF this week, and claimed that US$88m worth of programming sales took place at the three-day market last year, an increase of 20% from 2008.

“More than ever before, the global television industry is looking to the Asia-Pacific region to lead international growth,” he added, citing US research that said that the region will soon account for more than half of the world’s pay-TV subscriber population.