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Continued from
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Annex
From fee-for-service types of companies,
Singapore companies are now owning partial or full rights to the
content they produce, and penetrating the global market on the back
of international co-productions. They are also increasingly being
sought after as collaboration partners as evidenced by the
increasing value of deals sealed. From 2003 to 2007, MDA seeded
around S$190 million worth of co-production deals.
The latest is an agreement between MDA and leading British
distributor FremantleMedia Enterprise (FME) to jointly invest in
multi-media projects from Singapore-based producers, with FME
holding the distribution rights around the world. Announced at MIPTV,
the leading audiovisual and content market in Cannes, France, the
projects are set to generate US$12 million over the next two years
and aim to create commercially branded, multiplatform
Made-by-Singapore content that will be enjoyed by global audiences.
One well-travelled title is television series HD factual programme
Little Big Dreams (Threesixzero Productions), which had been sold to
broadcasters in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and the United
Kingdom, after picking up the Gold Medal Award for Best Direction at
the New York Festivals International TV Broadcasting Awards 2008.
As media convergence revolutionises consumption patterns, Singapore
media companies are responding to the challenge by creating
intellectual properties that can cross platforms. Examples include
animation series The New Adventures of Nanoboy (Scrawl Studios) and
Katakune (Character Farm), which are also available as games on
mobile platforms and Tu Tu Le, a children’s television series
co-produced by Singapore’s Earth Tree and Shanghai Media Group,
which moved onto interactive websites and workbooks. And recently,
MDA and Canal France International launched a competition in search
of proposals for factual programmes with cross-platform potential in
efforts to explore the creation of content that can be repurposed
and distributed across different digital platforms.
3. Charting new growth in the creation, management & distribution
of digital media content and technologies
Singapore is leveraging on new media distribution to underpin its
position as a nexus of regional and global content and technologies.
Two recent milestones further underscore this position: the
establishment of an Interactive Digital Centre in Temasek
Polytechnic for 3D visualisation; and a Digital Cinema Hub and
Network Operations Centre through a partnership between IDA and
Thomson’s Technicolor Digital Cinema business. Both are firsts in
Asia.
In entrenching a strong ecosystem as a digital cinema hub,
capabilities across the value-chain of services have been developed
over the years. More companies are equipped with digital cinematic
processing capabilities such as digital subtitling, encoding and
water-marking. Technicolor, MediaCorp Technologies, Globecast and
SingTel are capable of digital cinematic content management and
distribution. As a result, cinema exhibitors are now able to bring
in exciting alternative entertainment content like operas from The
Metropolitan Opera and Cinema Kabuki. To date, about 25 cinema
screens in Singapore are equipped to screen digital cinematic
content.
Singapore has witnessed early successes as a regional games hub,
where home-grown companies such as Infocomm Asia Holdings has
secured rights to manage and distribute top-tier massively
multiplayer online game (MMOG) titles like Granado Espada and
Hellgate: London to the region. Early this year, AsiaSoft, the
publisher of popular free-to-play MMOGs such as MapleStory and CABAL
Online, managed to clinch the rights to publish the much anticipated
MMORPG Mythos in Southeast Asia. To strengthen Singapore as a games
hub, Games Exchange Alliance, comprising a network of more than 30
companies across the games ecosystem in Singapore, signed a
Memorandum of Intent with 10 national games associations in the Asia
Pacific last year.
The industry has also made efforts towards building Singapore’s
capability as a global digital marketplace that is in line with the
national IT masterplan, iN2015. 1-Net Singapore set up a one-stop
service platform NexMedia for managing content distribution across
multiple platforms such as Video on Demand over Broadband, IPTV,
Mobile and Wireless. These capabilities have in turn attracted
collaborations with content owners.
In addition, Singapore is witnessing exciting developments in new
media content and services through the National Research
Foundation’s focus on IDM research and development for which S$500
million has been earmarked for a multi-agency initiative hosted by
MDA . The strategic aim of this programme is to drive breakthrough
and innovation in the new media sector and more than 100 projects
from large firms, small and medium enterprises, start-ups,
individuals and Institutes of Higher Learning have been funded
through this initiative since October 2006.
Examples of local companies in this field include Sparky Animation
for intelligent crowd modelling simulations, G Element for work in
3D modelling and database solutions, and MXR Corporation, which
offers tangible mixed reality technologies to seamlessly and
intuitively merge both virtual and physical worlds.
International companies such as Eon Reality and Anark are also
conducting cutting-edge research activities while flagship players
like Singapore Press Holdings and MediaCorp Pte Ltd are
experimenting with IDM to deliver new media services. As testament
to the promise of Singapore’s IDM sector, Singapore company,
Pixelmetrix Corporation, was awarded an Engineering & Technical Emmy
Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in
United States for its DV Station Transport Stream Analysis products.
Singapore has also identified niche areas of new media such as
immersive learning content and pervasive media as key growth
sectors. A pioneer batch of five schools had been identified to lead
the way for the seamless and pervasive integration of IDM into the
curriculum under FutureSchools@Singapore initiative. In addition to
developing innovative teaching approaches that prepare our students
for an IDM-pervasive future, such initiatives aim to achieve returns
on the commercialisation of successful IDM pedagogical models, tools
and content.
Today, Singapore’s media industry can make use of more than one
million square feet of data centre space available here to host
their operations. With a total submarine cable capacity of 28 Tbps
and direct international Internet connectivity of 25 Gbps, Singapore
is well positioned as a hub for international capacity. The Next Gen
NBN when ready, will be capable of delivering speeds of up to 1Gbps
and beyond, offering pervasive ultra-high speed connectivity by
2015.
“In the 1990s, EDB started to develop the media industry by
attracting the international cable and satellite broadcast
companies. This now forms a solid foundation for developing a
thriving IDM industry. Our effort in this space is bearing fruit,
with global leaders such as Lucasfilm, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft,
AETN, Mark Burnett Productions and Reuters establishing a
significant presence here. We are developing Singapore as a place
where innovative companies create world class content for global
consumption,” said Mr Manohar Khiatani, Assistant Managing Director,
Economic Development Board.
“IDA’s efforts in the IDM sector are built on our iN2015 masterplan
to use infocomm to transform key economic sectors in Singapore. With
a robust infrastructure, high-speed connectivity and its strategic
geographic location, Singapore is well-positioned to be a global
digital media and entertainment capital by 2015,” said Mr Thomas
Lim, Director, Education, Learning, Digital Media and Entertainment,
IDA.
“Five years into the launch of the Media 21 industry blueprint, the
building blocks of Singapore’s media ecosystem are in place and
ready to support and power greater growth. Later this year, MDA and
our partner agencies will be unveiling Singapore Media Fusion 2015,
the updated industry blueprint that charts the Singapore media
industry’s growth into the future, including our push into the IDM
space. In partnership with our local and international media
players, we hope to put in motion a growth trajectory that will take
Singapore’s media industry to the next lap,” said Dr Christopher
Chia, Chief Executive Officer, MDA.
Annex
Annex A for EDB’s Industry Highlights
Annex B for IDA’s Industry Highlights
Annex C for MDA’s Industry Highlights
Source:
www.mda.gov.sg News Release 16
Apr 2008
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Singapore propels ahead as region's
media hub
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