Pie Sharing or Food Fight? The Impact of Regulatory Changes on Media Market Competition in Singapore

The media market in Singapore was deregulated to a limited extent in 2000 when the government there announced the introduction of “controlled competition.” Newspaper publisher Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which for 16 years had enjoyed a government-sanctioned print monopoly, was granted licences for 2 television stations and began broadcasting in both English and Chinese. Government-owned MediaCorp, which formerly held a broadcasting monopoly, was issued a newspaper publishing licence and began publishing a free commuter tabloid titled Today in competition with SPH’s broadsheet Straits Times. The start-up losses brought by competition in both media have resulted in heavy financial losses for both firms and have led to government signals that a return to monopoly media might be considered. Some in the Singapore media, along with some scholars there, have argued that the island nation of 4 million is too small as a market to support competing media outlets, particularly in newspaper publishing. This article is an analysis of the Singapore situation in which I argue for a rationalization of media competition there rather than its elimination.