IMDA Launches Initiatives To Grow Digital Capabilities And Media Talent To Go Global

05/12/2018

IMDA Launches Initiatives To Grow Digital Capabilities And Media Talent To Go Global

The Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) today unveiled a series of new initiatives to enhance the vibrancy of Singapore’s media ecosystem. These include introducing the Skills Framework for Media, new partnerships with global media players, and additional funds for Singapore talent to secure regional and international co-productions.

The new initiatives were announced by Minister for Communications and Information Mr S Iswaran during the Singapore Hour at the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) and ScreenSingapore, part of the annual Singapore Media Festival (SMF).

Building New Media Capabilities in a Digital Economy

The Skills Framework for Media will help companies and professionals identify career progression pathways and the skills needed to stay updated in a changing media landscape.

The Skills Framework for Media was jointly developed by IMDA, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG), through extensive consultations with over 90 organisations including industry associations, unions and education and training institutions. The framework covers 112 media job roles and identifies 130 technical competencies for the new media landscape. Identified trends include the rise of immersive media, on-demand media, hybrid media roles, digital marketing and analytics.

Employers of media professionals such as Mediacorp, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Beach House Pictures, CreativesAtWork, ShopBack and mm2 Entertainment, have committed to be early adopters of the framework. More details on the framework are in Annex A.

Supporting International Collaborations and the Creation of “Made-With-Singapore" Content

IMDA will continue to support local media players in their overseas expansion through new programmes.

The new Public Service Media (PSM) Digital Partnership Fund will encourage Singapore media players to collaborate with international partners to develop public service content for digital platforms. The fund will aim to spur the creation of fresh and innovative content for audiences on digital platforms, and grow capabilities of local media talent through partnerships with international counterparts. The inaugural call-for-proposals for the PSM Digital Partnership Fund is now open. Interested companies may visit the IMDA website for more information on application procedures.

Next year, the Singapore Film Commission, part of the IMDA, will launch a Southeast Asia (S.E.A.) Co-production Grant to nurture film talent in Singapore and the region to jointly develop quality Asian stories for the world. The grant will be the first in Southeast Asia to fund feature-length regional co-productions between Singaporean creative producers and Southeast Asian filmmaking talent. It will provide funding support of up to $250,000 per project. More details will be made available by the first half of 2019, with the open call-for-proposals to open in the third quarter of 2019.

To grow the pool of content creators in Singapore and give them a platform to reach international audiences, Disney has proposed a two-year collaboration with IMDA, where Disney will set up a Content Studio as the creative development hub for digital-first multiplatform content for Southeast Asia. As part of this collaboration, Disney will also partner and train Singapore content creators to develop and produce the studio’s first slate of eight digital-first, multi-platform titles for distribution on Disney’s platforms.

IMDA will partner Facebook on the Facebook Creator Lab. The initiative will be the first of its kind by Facebook in Southeast Asia. Participating creators will learn how they can manage their presence, build their business and grow their community on Facebook. Participants will have access to production facilities at IMDA’s PIXEL. Call-for-applications opens today at: https://fb.me/fbcreatorlab and will close on 18 January 2019. The 6-month programme will start from February next year.

The launch of these new initiatives followed Senior Minister of State Sim Ann’s earlier announcement during the ATF and ScreenSingapore’s opening ceremony. At the event, She unveiled IMDA’s Media Industry Digital Plan. The Media IDP is part of IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital Programme, an initiative to make it easier for SMEs in the media sector to embrace digitalisation. The digital skills identified in the Media IDP are aligned to the Skills Framework for Media and the Skills Framework for Infocomm Technology.

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