SINGAPORE — Mediacorp’s strategic direction moving ahead aims serve a new generation audience, chief executive officer Shaun Seow said on Tuesday (Mar 7) in a staff memo.

Plans to invest in original content and digital platforms are in the pipeline, Mr Seow revealed. The annoucement comes a day after Parliament debated the role of Public Service Broadcasting in a digital age.

“Today, our media platforms reach 93 per cent of people in Singapore every week, but challenges lie ahead,” Mr Seow said.

He noted that “a new generation has far wider entertainment and information choices than their parents ever did; their tastes and habits have evolved too. Therefore, relying on our past formula for success is no guarantee for our continued relevance and by extension, our future viability”.

Mr Seow, who has been at the helm of Mediacorp since 2011, said that quality and relevant content is what sets Mediacorp apart. In order to reinvigorate the company’s content further, Mediacorp will be beefing up its commissioning efforts, he added.

“We need to listen more to our audiences. Before committing to a TV drama, for example, think content piloting and audience testing. That’s because the audiences we knew so well in the past have changed,” Seow said.

The company will be more open to creating content with partners “as we have to recognise that we do not have a monopoly on talent and ideas”.

And, with an eye firmly on the future, the company will also embrace new digital software and mediums, from Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) “and shades in between (which) are taking off in a big way with more affordably priced devices”. “We have to up our game,” Mr Seow noted.

While Mediacorp will keep its core of TV, radio and print strong, it will move decisively into the digital age, and at its core are Toggle and Channel NewsAsia.

While Toggle does not aim to follow Netflix by producing big-budget series and movies, the aim, Seow said, is for it to be a digital entertainment desination of choice for audiences here.

Mediacorp will be “investing aggressively” into original content for the streaming service, which currently produces some 10 original shows per year.

“By doing this, Toggle plays a strategically important role in Mediacorp — it helps us grow new audiences who want their content on-demand and alternatives to our Free-to-air (FTA) TV,” Mr Seow said.

The number of Toggle Originals is expected to double in the new financial year. In addition, the company plans to invest in more resources for Channel NewsAsia, and its pool of digital news producers will be expanded.

Investments will be made into the supporting technology as CNA will break news on its website, app or social media, instead of waiting for the next update on TV or radio.

On investing into the latest digital technologies, Mr Seow said that “this is not going to be easy, will not come cheap; the bar is being raised constantly by well-financed global players. We will just have to be very clever in our use of resources”.

To do that, Mr Seow noted to staff that more training opportunities will be provided in the areas of news and entertainment content production, programme commissioning and acquisition, social media analytics and digital marketing and selling.

“Our ability to understand, produce and sell in a digital ecosystem is a strategic imperative. We will continue our efforts at levelling up our understanding of the digital ecosystem... Our aim is to help all our staff increase their digital quotient,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company will continue to build a strong talent pool.

“We will engage potential hires through a combination of internship, scholarship and apprenticeship programmes,” said Seow.

His announcements came as the result of a recently-concluded business review with shareholder Temasek Holdings.

On Monday (March 6), Minister of State (Communications and Information) Chee Hong Tat had announced a Content Development Fund to keep public broadcasting offerings “relevant and fresh”.

Mr Chee said on Monday that the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) is partnering Mediacorp to build a pipeline of young creative talent for the media industry through new scholarship and apprenticeship programmes, as well as to collaborate with schools, such as programmes to develop young producers.

“We are grateful to MCI for partnering us on the journey,” said Seow in his memo.