Think anew: How traditional TV can thrive by connecting audiences, creators & advertisers in today’s landscape
By Shaun Lim
While the battle for viewer attention was once fought between TV channels, it is today arguably being contested between consumer behaviours. As short-form content platforms like TikTok and YouTube rewire how younger audiences consume content, traditional broadcasters are being pushed to rethink not just their distribution, but their entire content philosophy.
It also raises a critical question for broadcasters: How do you stay relevant when your audiences are no longer sitting still and have increasingly short attention spans?
“Today’s audiences, especially Gen Z, consume content on the move and in fragments,” Dr Ahmad Zaki, an independent media observer, told APB+. “You have about 10 seconds to capture their attention and no more than a few minutes to deliver your message, or they simply swipe away.”
Dr Zaki, who is also the former Director of Technical Operations at Malaysia’s Media Prima, also sees this new wave of short-form content as being intentionally raw and unpolished. Produced with minimal post production in the form of basic cuts and simple inserts, the priority is relatability and relevance, instead of technical perfection.
“Content that reacts quickly to current events or trends tends to gain traction rapidly, spreading across platforms through shares and reports,” said Dr Zaki. “Terms like ‘viral’ and ‘trending’, now part of everyday vocabulary, emerged from this ecosystem and are concepts that were virtually unheard of during my earlier years in broadcasting.”
The decline in attention spans is further accelerating this trend. Audiences today are less inclined to engage with long-form content and increasingly seek instant gratification over sustained storytelling. This behavioural shift, driven by changes in lifestyle and digital conditioning, has also fuelled the rise of user-generated content (UGC). Rapid, relatable, and easily sharable, UGC has moved from the margins to the mainstream, reshaping what audiences expect from media today.
This in turn, creates a conundrum for broadcasters, as content designed for social media is often incompatible with traditional terrestrial television.
Dr Zaki explained, “Social platforms favour fast-paced, ‘lean-forward’ engagement that is short, interactive, and immediate. Terrestrial TV, meanwhile, offers a more ‘lean-back’ experience suited to longer-form, contemplative viewing.”
To cater to diverse viewers, audience insights are playing an increasingly important role in shaping both programming and scheduling decisions. With real-time feedback available through platforms like Facebook and TikTok, broadcasters can observe viewing patterns, sentiment, and engagement behaviours almost instantly. This provides a direct window into the psyche of audiences, allowing broadcasters to identify what resonates, what does not, and how preferences are evolving.
This is also an exercise in cost-saving, as Dr Zaki pointed out, “In the old days, we relied on costly on-ground surveys to understand what viewers thought about our programmes. Today, social media makes gathering that feedback far easier and more immediate.”
This cost & time savings can then be reinvested in back-end operations, where significant investments continue to be made to enable production and distribution teams to repurpose content for both online and terrestrial TV audiences.
“One critical aspect of this is digitising vast archives — hundreds of thousands of hours of content — which would otherwise remain relics of the past,” said Dr Zaki. “An effective method to digitally archive, catalogue, and restore these materials is essential.”
Drawing on his vast experience, Dr Zaki suggested that a reliable media asset management (MAM) system is crucial for a TV station or production house to retrieve specific clips, programmes, or segments for repurposing. Without this capability, he added, archived materials are largely unusable.
Throughout the digitisation process, many TV stations and production houses find that some older content is no longer usable due to damaged segments, missing episodes, or other issues. This then compels them to invest millions to implement sophisticated MAM systems, although Dr Zaki cautioned, “Installing a system involves more than hardware and software; it begins with the painstaking, time-consuming process of digitisation, which can take years to complete.”
Proper cataloguing and categorisation are almost as important as the digitisation process itself, he added. “Back-end workflows must also evolve. For example, early TV subtitles were often burnt into the video. While acceptable at the time, these embedded subtitles complicate repurposing and remastering.
“The same applies to videos with logos, bugs, or other embedded graphics. Often, the raw footage no longer exists or has not been properly stored, raising questions about archiving procedures: Should raw footage, subtitling files, or promotional clips also be archived? If so, what limits should be applied to storage volumes?”
The ability to repurpose content thus demands a reassessment of the entire programme value chain, potentially requiring a complete revamp of entrenched SOPs. This, however, can potentially be alleviated by recent developments in AI, said Dr Zaki.
AI, he observed, has shown strong capability in meticulous tasks, such as film editing, restoration, and repurposing. While AI still faces challenges in language modelling and reconstruction, Dr Zaki sees the technology’s potential in cataloguing and metadata insertion, tasks that are currently highly labour-intensive.
“With proper training, AI tools could provide valuable assistance in repurposing content for multiple platforms and media,” he said.
In a multi-racial country like Malaysia, language and cultural sensitivities are a major concern. When repurposing content across different languages and cultural contexts, the task becomes even more complex.
Dr Zaki highlighted, “Repurposing content is not just about making it accessible to different audiences. It also requires careful attention to ensure that cultural and religious differences are respected.
“This presents a particular challenge for automation and AI, as these systems are not yet capable of fully understanding nuanced cultural and religious sensitivities.”
Beyond production, broadcasters continue to navigate a shifting economic landscape where advertising dollars increasingly move towards digital platforms.
At Media Prima, general programming budgets continue to be directed towards online content production, Dr Zaki revealed. While certain genres, such as magazine shows and dramas, tend to have more seasonal or specialised budgets, the bulk of investment is going into branded content, or short programmes partially sponsored by brands to highlight products and services.
“We should also not forget how social influencers are becoming integral to the mainstream TV business,” added Dr Zaki. “Some have transitioned into full-time presenters or show hosts, bringing their own followings and boosting audience numbers for the programmes they feature in.”
Mediacorp’s platform-agnostic approach is engaging diverse audiences
To adapt its content to attract younger viewers while keeping traditional audiences engaged, Singapore’s Mediacorp adopts a platform-agnostic, multi-modal approach to reach audiences wherever they are.
Lee Hung Sheng, Head, Audience & Partnerships, Mediacorp, told APB+, “Rather than defining audiences by platform, we leverage both our owned-and-operated as well as third-party platforms to deliver content Ips (intellectual properties) and personalities that resonate across different demographics.”
For kids, Mediacorp deploys a two-pronged approach across YouTube and mewatch, Mediacorp’s video-on-demand (VoD) service. On YouTube, serialised shows are reimagined into bite-sized formats for local and global audiences; mewatch, meanwhile, serves as the home of kids’ content in Singapore, offering a safe, curated environment that features content from around the world.
For youths, engagement centres on TikTok, YouTube, and Mediacorp’s audio platforms. “Our youth-oriented audio brands have evolved into multi-platform ecosystems, extending our reach through social and short-form content on TikTok, as well as podcasts and entertainment videos on YouTube,” said Lee.
He reported “significant growth” on TikTok, where average monthly views in fiscal year 2025 stands at 3.2 times higher than fiscal year 2023. To deepen engagement, Mediacorp also organised on-ground events like the Cloud9 music festival, which drew 4,000 attendees, over five million video views, and more than 160,100 engagements.
When it comes to leveraging audience insights from social media, Mediacorp focuses on how a piece of content, or related content, is designed and released.
Lee explained, “Rather directly influencing programming or scheduling decisions, these insights primarily help us refine our content focus, storytelling approach, and audience engagement strategies.
“By understanding what resonates with viewers in real time, we can adapt our creative direction, narrative tone, and even the types of talent or formats we use to ensure our content remains relevant and engaging across platforms.”
In addition, Mediacorp has been building a data competency framework that enables teams to retrieve critical data and derive deep actionable insights. This data-driven approach is complemented by qualitative research, which provides a nuanced understanding of audience needs, motivations and behaviours.
“By combining quantitative insights with qualitative feedback, we gain a holistic view of our audiences, enabling us to create content that is both meaningful and impactful,” said Lee.
Mediacorp’s engagement strategy is also guided by an audience-centric ethos of being present at every key touchpoint in consumers’ lives, engaging them anytime and anywhere they are, through a combination of Mediacorp-owned and third-party platforms.
Lee added, “In essence, we take a customer-centric approach, designing our budgets around audience-driven strategies, and ensuring that each segment is served in ways most relevant to them. Platform-specific investments are then made to support these broader goals, allowing us to stay responsive to shifting consumption habits without losing focus on our core strengths.”
To address the key challenge of monetising content across both broadcast and social platforms, Mediacorp leverages its strength as Singapore’s national media network with a multi-platform reach and multi-modal audience engagement approach.
This allows the company to offer advertisers year-round opportunities to connect with target audiences in a holistic and highly customisable way, spanning its diverse portfolio of platforms, IPs, and on-screen personalities.
Mediacorp also partners with best-in-class digital publishers to create Singapore’s largest network of premium, brand-safe websites. Covering lifestyle, entertainment, and current affairs content, this network provides an optimal environment for advertisers and delivers rich, trusted content for consumers.
In line with the industry’s shift towards digital advertising and the rise of the creator economy, Mediacorp has embraced initiatives such as Bloomr.SG and the Mediacorp SocialHub.
Lee described, “Bloomr.SG focuses on recruiting and developing young creators who are shaping the next generation of digital storytelling, while the SocialHub leverages deep social insights to match the right personalities with advertisers’ target audiences across social media touchpoints.”
Together, these initiatives underscore Mediacorp’s commitment to innovating across platforms, bridging traditional and digital media, and delivering meaningful engagement for both audiences and advertisers.
By combining data-driven insights, creative innovation, and a multi-platform strategy, Mediacorp is demonstrating how traditional broadcasters can thrive in a converged media landscape that connects audiences, creators, and advertisers in meaningful and measurable ways.
