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Media sector gets $250m boost
Money will be used to co-fund new projects to sustain industry's growth
By Chua Hian Hou

THE Government is pumping in an unprecedented $250 million to help promising Singapore media companies like documentary producers, music companies and video game developers to develop the industry further this year.

Yesterday, the Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that it had committed the amount to help 'sustain the growth of Singapore's media sector amid the economic downturn'.

Last year, the authority injected $180 million into the sector.

The money, said the agency's chief executive Christopher Chia, will be used to co-fund between 200 and 300 new projects over the course of the year, with the aim of creating some 2,000 new media jobs and strengthening Singapore's burgeoning media industry.

The media sector has enjoyed steady growth of 8 per cent between 1996 and 2006, outpacing the economy's 5.2 per cent growth. It generated an estimated $20 billion in revenue last year and currently employs some 58,000 people.

The downturn, though, has put a dampener on the sector, said Dr Chia, speaking at the third annual Media Business Forum, held at the high-tech business park Fusionopolis. Increasingly risk-averse investors, for instance, have become less willing to put money into media projects. This prompted the MDA to step in, to help ensure there is work for promising media firms, and that they have enough cash to develop and produce new projects and export them overseas.

Yesterday, it asked media firms to submit proposals for public service programmes that promote values like racial harmony and volunteerism; for TV products that could be given new life as video games or films; and for projects to develop and distribute Singapore's music worldwide.

Smaller, high-risk research and development-related ideas could receive outright grants. For large-scale productions like feature films, the Government will co-invest and share in the receipts if the production makes money.

The MDA will also release submission details for interactive digital media projects like video games and online television later this year.

Financing aside, it is also facilitating efforts to help the media industry in other ways, from holding training workshops to matchmaking film producers with suitable foreign film distributors, said Dr Chia.

source: Media sector gets $250m boost

[gadenp]

Media is the new fab. The last one was Gaming I think....

And that was a bomb. But I think Media might be fail like gaming. Seeing as there seems to be so many "media" people around in Singapore.