Local TV must up its game on locally-produced content or we’ll one day live-stream its death

Descendants of the Sun (DOTS) recently concluded its 16-episode run and countless Singaporeans were glued to their TVs and computer monitors binge-watching the series.

The DOTS hype train was further fueled by our media’s nonstop coverage.

On social media there was an increasing amount of DOTS-related posts especially during the lead up to the series neared its finale.

The Straits Times even devoted two full pages to review the ending and to report on how DOTS fans gathered to watch an online stream of the finale less than 24 hours after it aired in South Korea.

It will not be a stretch to call it one of the shared cultural moments of 2016.

So the big question is – where was local TV in all of this?

 

Traditional model of buying syndicated shows needs catching up

Two decades ago, if we wanted to watch overseas movies/shows, we would have to wait for our local TV stations to purchase them. And usually that meant some months or years would have passed since its initial broadcast in their respective countries.

But what choice did we have – apart from renting from neighbourhood video shops or buying illegal copies from Johor Bahru?

Fast forward to a decade ago, a small group of people found that the Internet was a great place to access content they could not find on terrestrial TV – again using ‘legally-questionable’ methods.

All was fine and well for local TV in the last two decades because renting shows was not a particularly easy activity – you had to walk downstairs, interact with people, and shell out some money, and then do it all over again when you return the video/VCDs/DVDs.

As for piracy, you can get arrested/sued/fined for it – although an increasing number of young Singaporeans are finding piracy acceptable.

In a survey commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) in November 2014, about one in two respondents (54.9 per cent) viewed downloading from unauthorised sources as theft, down from some three in four (77.8 per cent) in 2010.

In other words, there always existed alternative ways to access content not available on local TV, but it was not very convenient to the masses.

Until…

 

Streaming sites are making previously inaccessible content accessible

Is the gravy train for Mediacorp under threat from the advent of the Internet and streaming?

If we were to use DOTS as an example, the answer is a resounding “Yes”.

As recent as five years ago, Mediacorp could still buy a show like DOTS and lure viewers in due to the relative inaccessible nature of Korean dramas. This then translates to advertising revenue for Mediacorp.

Now, the many people who watched DOTS in Singapore probably did so on new streaming service Viu. It gives users access to Korean content 8 to 24 hours after they have been broadcast in Korea – complete with English subtitles. All completely legit. Advertising revenue went to Viu.

What if Viu/DOTS represents the future model for media content – free, on demand, and not limited by geography? Where will Mediacorp figure in all of this?

 

Streaming offers a richer content catalogue

During the Committee of Supply debate in April, Minister of State for Communications and Information Chee Hong Tat said,

“operating environment for our media companies is getting more challenging. Our viewers are consuming content from a variety of sources — Netflix, iTunes, Spotify and many others … Indeed we are facing that challenge. Free-to-air TV has to jostle to keep the attention of viewers.”

Viewers have a plethora of viewing choices during their free time – often from sources with content that are of much higher quality.

This is the reality today.

With so many eyeballs leaking away, Mediacorp must evolve to plug these gaps to ensure they do not sink.

Taking the United States’ viewership patterns as a yardstick, between 2011 and 2015, the time spent by 18 to 24 year-olds watching traditional TV dropped by one third, according to viewing figures by Nielsen. The report also noted that viewership figures were declining since 2011 for teens (12 – 17), older millenials (25 – 34), and Gen X-ers (35 – 49). The only increase came from people 50 and older.

 

Local content has to be compelling

In the same budget speech, MOS Chee mentioned that Singapore had produced several well-received programmes produced under Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) funding and name drops The Little Nyonya.

It’s 2016 and the production that gets mentioned as a well-received show is something that came out in 2008.

Perhaps the people at Mediacorp would be cursing this writer and saying, “Hey do you think it is easy to produce content? Why don’t you come do it? We’re running a free-to-air TV station, so don’t expect Hollywood standards!”

Fair enough. Mediacorp can say that. Unfortunately, that will not stop viewers from watching more compelling content elsewhere – like DOTS.

 

 

Not all doom and gloom for Mediacorp

The broadcaster is getting onto the streaming bandwagon with its Toggle website. It had a slow start three years ago because it required people to create login accounts before they could watch anything and it lacked high definition streaming.

It has improved since its slow start removing the need to register and log in, and having many locally produced shows available for catch-up viewing in high definition.

Other overseas shows like Supergirl and The Flash are surprisingly current (they are shown on the same week as the US telecast) but are not available in high definition and only the latest episodes are available for catch-up viewing.

 

A window of opportunity for Mediacorp

In the United States, technology magazine Fast Company noted the “slow but inevitable fraying of the cable TV bundle”.

Both cable operators – Starbhub and SingTel’s Mio TV – will face similar challenges in the near future to win over audiences again.

Local cable tv subscribers will wonder whether it is worth putting all their eggs in one basket for two years – $30-$40 per month package with Starhub or SingTel.

In fact, SingTel had identified the threat posed by Netflix. Within a week of Netflix’s arrival in Singapore, Singtel struck a deal with Netflix to offer up to nine months of a complimentary Netflix subscription when they recontract or sign up with the telco’s services.

In other words, local viewers are up for grabs again, if there are compelling content to attract them.

 

What next for Mediacorp?

Now that it has got its streaming “infrastructure” underway, it is time for Mediacorp to think how it can make its content compelling enough for Singaporeans to choose on Toggle over Netflix, Viu, YouTube, Funshion, Tudou, and others (note that 4 out of the 5 mentioned are free).

Netflix, for example, spends 10% of its US$5 billion content acquisition budget on producing original content. It prefers original content over content licensing.

While Netflix’s US$500 million budget for original content seems like a daunting sum, we must also consider that the Singapore Government spent $250 million last year on PSB.

And how much of these PSB funds go to Mediacorp? A lion’s share of about 75 per cent.

If that is any thing to go by, Mediacorp should be looking at making good content, rather than purchasing it – they cannot ‘outbuy’ giants like Netflix.

So the question is, will Mediacorp be able to woo Singaporeans back to local content, in spite of challenges like budget, time constraints, and possibly media regulation?

 

Top image from Viu Singapore Facebook

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- Martino Tan