Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Alice Tan Chief Marketing Officer MediaCorp Singapore

What are your acquisition strategies?

MediaCorp aims to deliver valued content to the world, and television is one of the various platforms from which we broadcast. Our acquisition strategies would vary between our mass appeal channels and those that are more niche or news and information-focused. MediaCorp Channels 5, 8 and U are our mass appeal channels that reach out to 90% of the Singapore population, and our acquisition strategy for these channels is to be at the forefront of the latest programming trends, and acquire programs that fit with our channels' branding and positioning. For our other channels such as Arts Central and Channel NewsAsia, our strategy is guided more out of acquiring programs that cater to the needs of our niche audience. Factors that will affect our decision include ratings and revenue potential, advertiser traction, price points and telecast window periods/holdback.

What programs are you looking for?

We are constantly on the look out for programs that will engage our audiences. On Channel 5, our English Channel, variety programs and specials have always done well. On Channels 8 and U, our Chinese channels, Asian drama serials from Korea and Taiwan do very well, along with variety programs, specials and movies. For our channels Arts Central and Channel NewsAsia, we look for documentaries and factual programming with content and quality that fit the channel's positioning and audiences' needs.

Can you name the most successful titles that you acquired in 2006?

On our mainstream channels, English titles that did very well include movies such as "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl", "The Tuxedo and X Men 2 ", and scripted series such as "Prison Break", "Ghost Whisperer", "Ugly Betty" and "Desperate Housewives".

Titles that performed very well on our Chinese channels include Korean drama series "Princess Hour", "Prince Hour", "Hwang Jini" and Taiwanese idol drama "Hanazakarino Kimitachihe".

"Supernanny" and "Taboo" did very well on Arts Central, while " 911" and reality show "Chinese Restaurants" rated well on Channel NewsAsia.

What programs will be in demand at MIPTV 2007?

Television as we know is shifting from a scheduled delivery to a multi-delivery/platform model, with audiences who want and can access television via the Internet and their mobile devices. Content for new media platforms will therefore also be in demand at MIPTV 2007, on top of the traditional programming.