SingaporeSurf

When Tiger Beer pay one whole bunch of money to MediaCorp to pay for the production or acquisition of a specific television programme, MediaCorp will announce at the beginning and at the end of the television programme that, in case you didn't know, Tiger Beer is sponsoring your viewing entertainment pleasure, and It's Time for Tiger Beer.

But when Singaporeans pay MDA (Media Development Authority) which pay MediaCorp for the production or acquisition of television programmes — through the television licensing scheme — MediaCorp does not acknowledge anything on-air. Not even a single line of credits at the end of the programme. (Instead, we get to see which hair salon is doing the actresses' hair. And It's Time for Tiger Beer.)

Isn't that some sort of discrepancy? I sure feel shortchanged. So I asked MediaCorp's feedback unit about this.

And MediaCorp played "tai-chi", and pushed the issue to MDA: "To your point about on-air acknowledgement of MDA in the genres that it subsidizes, you may want to broach this with MDA. From our understanding, the MDA is not so much interested in branding itself — unlike commercial entities — but in ensuring that the "Public Service" programmes are broadcast for social cohesiveness/nation building purposes."

My take on MediaCorp's reply? We don't need to acknowledge, because MDA never forced us to. Tiger Beer can choose not to advertise and be a sponsor, so we better give them some advertisement time. You TV viewers are forced to pay your licensing fee, so we need not give you any "advertisement" time.

I just hope that someone out there within MediaCorp and MDA is keeping track on where all these TV licensing money is going, and whether all these money is effective.