Reunification of our TV arena

It is not the reunification of China and Taiwan. Neither is the reunion of the 2 Korean Penisular. But the unity of the local tv giants, Mediacorp and SPH. Perhaps consolidate is a better word as wat the companies claimed. Everyone was caught unaware when the news broke out. Rumours were flying ard when SPH shares suspended pending for a major announcement. Well well, the TV market is back to a monopoly again with Mediacorp emerging as the overall winner. After all, TV is not SPH's expertise.

I have lots to say abt the merger or probably a take over. Is this move evident enough to inform everyone that Singapore media mkt should not be liberalise at all? Both companies faced serious financial problems after Mediaworks was born. Did Mediaworks conduct their research properly before they went into the mkt? Did they study the economic viability? Are they going into the mkt for the sake of liberalisation? There were many qns left unanswered. In short, it means a failure in their investment project. Very typical ans. But their losses are huge, millions and millions of dollars. It could be put into better projects that rear attractive profits. A wrong investment decision. Now, who is going to be responsible? The Board of Directors of SPH? Investment Division of SPH? Management Team including CEO Alan Chan? Not a single word was mentioned. Probably the person is too embarrass to talk abt it.

After the consolidation, the next BIG qn. What happens to all the artises and more imptly the admin staff of SPH mediaworks? Another round of retrenchment exercise again. I guess many will be asked to leave. They dun have a choice. Let's face it. Mediacorp has their own team of expertise. They dun need so many 'cost bearing' pple ard. As for the artise, most of them came from Mediacorp, so it will not be a big problem for them to return home. Except the newcomers and maybe pple who have offended ex superiors in Mediacorp. There are still many uncertainities. It will take a few weeks to months before the actual retrenchment exercise takes place.