History
On 31 March 2000, Lee Cheok Yew was appointed as the CEO of SPH MediaWorks Ltd. Man Shu Sum and some of the Mediacorp artistes joined from SPH MediaWorks the former as Chief Operating Officer of Mediacorp.
The company was founded by Singapore Press Holdings on 8 June 2000 in an investment worth $50 million,[3] and appointed local television industry veteran Lee Cheok Yew as its CEO.[1] The new company aimed not only at the conventional radio and television businesses, but also eyed a potential interest in the online sector.[4] By October of the same year, the company announced that five actors and actresses: Kym Ng, Bryan Wong, Darren Lim, Wang Yuqing and Guo Liang have joined their ranks.[5] The company set plans to launch its two channels by June 2001, aiming to attract at least 30% of Singapore's television viewers.[6] The building that would house the new company, close to the main SPH one at Genting Lane, was ready to be finished by January 2001.[7]
In November that same year, six actors and actresses from the company's Chinese Media and Entertainment division attended training sessions in China and Taiwan,[8] and two journalists have joined their television news division.[9] MediaWorks also revealed the logos of the company and its two television channels to the public.[10] The English channel was to be named TVWorks (also styled TV Works) and the Chinese channel, Channel U.[11] The company aimed at taking over 50% of the television advertising market.[12] By December, the company announced that five English-speaking actors and actresses, including local comedy star Adrian Pang, have joined their ranks.[13] For the news service, MediaWorks poached Arnold Gay and Michelle Quah from Channel NewsAsia.[14] Early in 2001, concerns had emerged at MediaCorp that it would have started a war between both companies.[15]
SPH MediaWorks signed a co-operation agreement with Hong Kong's TVB from June 2002, when the contract with MediaCorp expired, but there were no plans for the two to co-produce content. The agreement enabled Channel U the right to premiere new dramas from the broadcaster.[16][17] A subsequent agreement was signed with the Taiwanese channel China Television for a period of two years.[18] MediaCorp TV consequently did not renew the contract it had with TVB in order to free more time on Channel 8 for local content.[19]
By mid-January, it had secured $2 million in sponsorship commitments, to advertise on both channels.[20]
SPH MediaWorks provided a live webcast of the 2001 Chingay procession, ahead of the launch of its channels.[21][22]
At the same time as the commercial launch of MediaCorp's TVMobile, SPH MediaWorks planned to launch a similar service, Channel OOH! (OOH as in Out Of Home). The service was going to be a joint operation with Captive Vision[23] and, like TVMobile, was aimed at buses, shops and banks.[24]
MediaWorks had the intention of buying radio stations from the NTUC in March 2001, with the creation of a joint-venture between the two, taking over Most Music (FM 91.3) and Heart FM (100.3).[25] The tentative name of the new company was UnionWorks[26] and the relaunch was initially set for the end of May.[27]
SPH MediaWorks held its launch ceremony on 20 March 2001, where it was oficially announced that the two channels were to start operations in May.[28][29]
Ahead of the May 6 launch date, Channel U was supposed to air promos to entice viewers to tune in to the new service. The signal was supposed to be switched on in early April, but at the time, SPH MediaWorks didn't have a licence.[30] Related to that, the company's Chinese-language magazine You-weekly failed to hit shelves.[31] On 26 April 2001, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority announced it has issued a Nationwide Free-To-Air Television Service Licence to SPH MediaWorks. According to the terms of the license, the company will operate two channels: Channel U and TVWorks, from May that same year.[32] With the licence granted, Singapore now had eight free-to-air television channels available, six from MediaCorp and two from SPH MediaWorks.[33] In connection to this, Channel U and TVWorks started their campaign to raise awareness of the new services[34] and that, with competition, the quality of local productions would increase. An estimated 95% of Singaporean households would receive the new services.[35][36] You-weekly finally hit the shelves on 4 May.[37] The campaign, The MediaWorks Big Tune-In, involved viewers earning cash prizes if they received the services.[38]
Channel U, the first of the two channels, went live on 6 May. Despite a blaze of publicity, its launch night turned out to be a ratings failure from its launch night (12%) to its second night (4.7%), whereas the main news on Channel 8 scored 16.3% and its equivalent on Channel U, 3.9%. Channel 8's vice president Khiew Voon Khang said that the ratings slide looked "like a street bump than Mount Everest".[39]
On 16 May, ahead of the launch of TVWorks, its companion magazine Works Weekly launched.[40]
In July, SPH MediaWorks set up a joint-venture with Chinese consultancy firm Jade. The company, Jade MediaWorks, aimed at producing television content for the mainland Chinese market and both companies held 50% of the stocks.[41]
Ahead of the relaunch of More Music as WKRZ, SPH MediaWorks announced that it would carry at least 22 hours of syndicated MTV content per week.[42] On 3 October 2001, SPH Radio Broadcasting Arm, a joint management between SPH Multimedia and NTUC Media was launched as SPH UnionWorks; owns, manages, and operates UFM 1003 and WKRZ 91.3FM. Both radio stations were simply re-branded and resume operations of Heart 100.3FM and More Music 91.3FM previously wholly owned by NTUC Media. More Music was given a US-style name, going under the fake callsign WKRZ, and Heart FM was renamed UFM, in a tie-in to Channel U.[43]
In November 2001, viewing figures cited by Singapore Press Holdings show Channel U as the second most watched television station in Singapore,[44] That same year, 73 employees were laid off from MediaWorks, due to a restructuring exercise at TVWorks, as well as a weak advertising market.[44]
At the 2001 Asian Television Awards, SPH MediaWorks only won one award, with Channel U's The Big Challenge earning the Best Entertainment Programme award.[45] In January 2002, SPH MediaWorks barely managed to gain spots in the English and Chinese top tens. None of TVWorks' content reached the English ranking and in the Chinese ranking, only one programme from Channel U, A Kindred Spirit, reached sixth place (week from 13-19 January).[46]
On 3 March 2002, SPH MediaWorks TVWorks was renamed SPH MediaWorks Channel i.[47] In May, the ratings of its two channels were rising, whereas those of MediaCorp were on the decline.[48][49]
At the 2002 Promax BDA Awards, SPH MediaWorks bagged a record four gold, six silver and one bronze awards, and was touted "Asia's Most Awarded TV Station", a first for a Singaporean group.[50]
On 4 December 2002, MediaWorks won the "Broadcaster of the Year" award at the 2002 Asia Television Awards. Channel U also bagged the "Channel of the Year" award.[51][52][53] Despite the wins, there were concerns from MediaWorks about potential attacks from MediaCorp.[54]
In January 2003, Channel U organised a charity show, Ren Ci Charity Show, in support of Ren Ci Hospital, shortly after being named the Broadcaster of the Year. The charity show featured SPH MediaWorks artistes and guest performers with entertainment and physical endurance segments to encourage the public to donate to the hospital. Channel 8 moved the PSC Nite Special to the night of the show, an hour ahead of its start, causing confusion and opposite arguments between the two broadcasters.[55] The charity raised $4.76 million, almost the double of the initially intended target of $2.5 million.[56] A Lianhe Zaobao editorial on 17 January revealed that MediaCorp disclosed its donation to the charity and denied its anonymity, over the broadcast of advertisements for Ren Ci Hospital during PSC Nite Special, airing at the same time as the competing telethon.[57]
Lee resigned as CEO of SPH MediaWorks on 1 April 2003 over "serious internal differences".[58]
SPH became the sole owner of MediaWorks effective 25 April 2003, buying shares from Mr. Lee Cheok Yew, Mr. Cheng Shoong Tat, Mr. Ang Wee Chye and Mr. Man Shu Sum for $1.24 million.[59] The rise of both channels' ratings increased by May 2003, attracting 33.2% of the total FTA audience.[60]
WKRZ 91.3 was probed for including explicit language in an edition of The Morning Show on 27 July 2003. The fine, worth $15,000, involved a woman simulating an orgasm. Sex scenes were, then as now, not allowed on Singaporean media, in an attempt to prevent tensions between ethnic groups.[61]
By October, the two channels have outgrown the growth rates of their MediaCorp counterparts.[62]
Channel i News won the "Best News Programme" award at the Asian Television Awards on 4 December 2003.[63]
Despite being in the red since its start, SPH MediaWorks said in December 2003 that it had no intentions to leave the television business.[64]
Merger
On 17 September 2004, however, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Mediacorp Singapore Pte Ltd (Mediacorp) announced that both of their companies will be formally merging their television networks and operations, of which operates the mainstream free-to-air terrestrial channels; Mediacorp Channel 5, Mediacorp Channel 8, TVMobile, SPH MediaWorks Channel U and SPH MediaWorks Channel i. The other free-to-air terrestrial channels, Mediacorp Suria and Mediacorp Central run by Mediacorp TV12 and Channel NewsAsia by Mediacorp News remained wholly owned and run by Mediacorp Pte Ltd, in contrast to the channels owned by Mediacorp TV Pte Ltd under the holding company of Mediacorp Television Broadcasting Arm (a Mediacorp channel) as of 1 January 2005; Mediacorp Television Broadcasting Arm were 80% managed by Mediacorp and 20% by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) through SPH Multimedia Ltd. The merger was seen as a move to reduce the losses faced by SPH since the launch of Channel U and Channel i, and to reduce the losses in the free newspaper market of "Today" faced by Mediacorp.
Apart from the merging of local television operations, the merger includes the joining of free newspaper operations of both Mediacorp and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). Streats, managed by SPH was merged into “Today”; Streats would cease its independent publication upon the completion of the merger while “Today” would continue to be managed by Mediacorp itself. The merger of the two companies was also the first of its kind in history; a merger between a government unit and a private organization. It is inevitable, as Singapore's free to air television market is small. The fact that SPH MediaWorks keeps operating their broadcast business at a loss makes merger with Mediacorp a viable solution as a more established company that owns a larger television network.[65][66]
A final dinner was held at the Singapore Hilton Hotel on 15 December 2004, in what doubled as the annual Christmas dinner and the farewell dinner to 300 employees.[67] To mark the company's departure from television, both channels announced a special schedule for 31 December.[68]
The two companies were formally merged on 31 December 2004, and it was also announced that one of SPH MediaWorks' two channels, Channel i, after being seen as not commercially viable to maintain, due to the small free to air television markets, was permanently shutting down along with the whole company. The channel ceased transmission at 1.30am in the morning on 1 January 2005, after the final program, which was an encore of Channel i News, was broadcast. Channel U, however did not cease transmissions and became a national public broadcasting channel when Channel U had its ownership transferred to Mediacorp at 12am sharp.
Subsequent divestment from Mediacorp
On 25 August 2017, SPH announced that it would divest its shares from Mediacorp, which are 20 percent in Mediacorp TV and 40 percent in Mediacorp Press in a move to focus on its core media businesses.[69][70] Mediacorp would thus acquire these stakes for S$18 million, resulting in both companies being full subsidiaries of Mediacorp when completed.[71] This comes after Mediacorp announced that it would stop publishing Today as a hardcopy and go fully digital from end-September 2017, coming as more readers are inclined towards consuming news digitally. The digitalisation of Today would result in 40 roles being made redundant. In addition, Mediacorp agreed not to publish any soft copy or digital format of Today similar to a hardcopy newspaper for five years.[72][73][74] The acquisition of SPH's stakes was completed on 29 September 2017, thus returning to 2000 when media competition had not started yet.[75]
