TCS..television for chinese singaporeans?

• zheshi

  24 Nov 05, 02:06

  Originally posted by fenixfire:

  I just wonder, do you feel singaporean tv reflects the multiracial and multilingual equality that the gahmen harps on? Why is it that it is obvious that Chinese based channels are getting all the money and being expanded on the most? Should we not focus on the english channels to cater for all the races of singapore?
  
  Channel 5 has one singapore idol in two years, and i cannot start to count the number of talent shows they have in the chinese channels, and to make things worst, the chinese talent shows seek contestants from not just singapore but other countries. Hence, the comeptition is not a showcase of local talent but merely a mean of further developing chinese television in singapore.
  
  Channel 5 has seen its "stars", crap as they are moving on to do chinese shows and such, shouldn't more effort be put in to improve english programming and artistes instead on spending more money and expanding to two dedicated chinese entertainment channels vs 1 english channel.
  
  Last i checked, the tax for radio and television was equal across the racial and languages strata, show why the imbalance?Why can't channel 5 get more sultry fiona xie types, with better acting abilities, and spend less time and money on developing the already way superior chinese channels?

  Demand and Supply dudex... what the point of me expanding english show..when i could make more profit on chinese show at the mommentx..
• fenixfire

  24 Nov 05, 23:31

  exactly! supply is there for the chinese tv stuff,corresponds with the demand..but the supply for local english stuff not met..that's why people are subscribing to cable. saying hey!demand and supply does nothing...what needs to be done is that someone must start using his head and start thinking of ways how to get the supply that the demand wants.
  
  Having a good local english channel caters to the whole population less maybe the old dialect people, vs just catering to chinese in particular...its obvious the bigger market is in an english channel.
  
  The focus on chinese channels is purely not logical from a neutral standpoint, and borders on being unfair to other races. 1/2 a channel for the indians, 1 channel for the mats and 2 channels for the chinese. and 1 measly crap excuse for an english local channel..i wonder what that does for visitors to our country, i'm sure after reading our wonderful "freedom of press" newspapers, they would love to sit back and watch a rerun of triple 9!
  
  *shudders*
  robin leong's acting *epileptic shock!*
• wenyong90

  25 Nov 05, 00:49

  TCS?it a old name for mediacorp,man,u just returned to singapore?By the way,someone is right that indians and malays watched ch 8,in ch 5,there are also other races not only chinese,there are alots of shows mixing races.And that shows that mediacorp is not just for chinese singaporeans.I remenber asking my malays buddys "why u all dont wan watch yr malay ch?" the reply is "very few is nice one"it is just that ch 8 can do better shows,and other ch cant,if they can,i dont mind watching as long as it's nice.
• dragg

  25 Nov 05, 00:52

  Originally posted by fenixfire:

  haiyah, how i know what the tv ppl call themselves...oh yea hor..mediacorp..paiseh...my apologies..but tcs ..can use to illustrate my point, so also good..
  
  Yea..i'm not chinese..not pure chinese at least..i also watch chinese television, its not bad..way better than channel 5..the question is why is that so?

  it is all about money.
  
  they target where the money is.
  
  
• Li Ka Shing

  25 Nov 05, 00:53

  Hi,
  
  It's because most Singaporeans are not natural English speakers.
  
  English is not the first and main language for most Singaporeans.
  
  This is because of the bilingual policy. If you see the data the government release, most people read English papers compared to Chinese (because Chinese is harder to read and write), but most people watch Chinese TV and listen to Chinese radioes compared to English ones.
  
  Because of this bilingual policy and its effects on the linguistic ability of its population, this is a fundamental factor.
  
  An expert once predicted 200 years for English in Singapore to become the first and main language, and completely integrated in the national pscyhe.
  
  Bilingualism means biculturalism. And currently Singapore has not shifted so much to the English. I think as long as bilingualism exist, people will prefer their mother-tounge culture. Major sections of the population like to watch Chinese TV as a result.
  
  I think better funding and better management of English TV is fine. But it's superficial. The fundamental underlying will be harder to change.