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.