MDDI's Response to PQ on PSB Funding and Viewership

Parliament Sitting on 15 October 2025

Question for oral answer

4. Mr Foo Cexiang asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) whether the Ministry tracks data and statistics on viewership ratings of public service broadcasting (PSB) programmes; and (b) if so, how do the viewership ratings of PSB programmes in the past five years compare with those in the earlier preceding five years.

5. Mr Foo Cexiang asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) in each of the past five years, how much Government funding has been provided for public service broadcasting (PSB); (b) which PSB programmes has received such Government funding; and (c) whether the Ministry has assessed a need to recalibrate the amount of Government funding provided in order to boost the popularity of locally created content.

Answer

1. Our Public Service Media (PSM) play an important role to inform, educate, and connect Singaporeans. They provide trusted and timely sources of information to form a common basis for social discourse. They also reflect our multicultural fabric and way of life.

2. To enable our Public Service Media entities to effectively adapt and innovate in the fast-changing media landscape, the Government provides funding for their overall operations, rather than individual programmes.

3. Over the past 5 financial years, the Government has allocated about $380 million annually to support Mediacorp to reach domestic audiences across four languages. This is lower than the annual funding of approximately $750m allocated to the national broadcasters of Finland and Denmark, which have similar population sizes to Singapore. Mediacorp reached more than 90% of the local population through its owned and operated platforms as well as social media platforms. More than 75% of its audiences were satisfied with its services.

4. We do not have comparable reach data in the earlier years as we have moved from tracking solely TV reach to a broader reach metric across all Mediacorp’s platforms and social media platforms. This is keeping with the domestic audiences’ changing consumption habits and Mediacorp’s broader network strategy. For example, Mediacorp’s TV reach dropped by about 10% over the last decade or so, but unique video viewers on meWATCH has increased by about 80% in the same period. Meanwhile, public satisfaction with Mediacorp has held steady, at more than 75% across this time period.

5. The Government is committed to continue supporting our Public Service Media to deliver high-quality and trusted news and entertainment content to Singaporeans. We will continue to ensure that Government funding can adequately and effectively support our Public Service Media in achieving their national mission.