Saturday, September 18, 2004
17th September 2004, Friday - a day the media went back to what it was 4 years ago. Well almost.
If you haven't heard, here's a brief on what exactly happened to the complicated media arena. Streats is incorporated into TODAY. From Jan 2005 onwards, a Streats masthead (well not exactly a masthead but, it'll say something like "TODAY incorporating Streats") will be included into the TODAY masthead for one year only. MediaCorp bought over the 40% of shares from Singtel on 16th September 2004, Thursday & sold that 40% to SPH. The paper will still be known as TODAY & will be run by MediaCorp Press independently from SPH. So basically, Streats is out of the market. As for the TV side, A new company, MediaCorp TV Holdings Pte Ltd will be managing Channel 5, Channel 8, TVMobile, Channel U, Channel I & MediaCorp Studios. MediaCorp owns 80% of this new company & SPH, 20%. Channel U will continue to operate. The commercial viability of Channel i will be reviewed.
I got into office, opened my outlook & saw the email from group comms - Townhall session at the TV Theatre at 2.30pm today by the GCEO, Mr. Ernest Wong. Immediately I know it has got something to do with the stakes thingy. But I didn't expect a consolidation. It came as a shock when I finally come to know about the whole matter. Naturally, the first thing that came into my mind is the security of my job. My CEO said something like the staff over here (i.e. TODAY) will be largely intact. Now, what does largely means? Is 5% considered largely? Sigh! I can't help but worry about my future...
On a lighter note, I'm glad Channel U is here to stay. I hope there won't be much changes to their programming (my Taiwan variety shows, my Jacky Wu & my HK dramas!) I've already boycott Channel 8, if Channel U becomes Channel 8 number 2, I'll resort to subscribing cable. I'm saying this as a viewer, not as a staff of MediaCorp.
Everything said is strictly off the record.
// she's beautifully chaotic at 1:07 AM >> 