Media co’s step in to entertain workers on lockdown

Media companies across Singapore are providing free entertainment to Singapore’s one-million strong community of migrant workers hit hard by Covid-19.

The vast majority of new daily Covid-19 cases in Singapore are from South Asian migrant worker communities living in dormitories.

The entertainment initiatives are led by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which says the aim is to create a pipeline of content to support workers living in isolation during the country’s pandemic containment “circuit breaker” effort.

“We understand many workers are grappling with the difficulties of living in isolation away from their homes and families,” said Howie Lau, the IMDA’s assistant chief executive (media & innovation).

The IMDA has backed support messages from Hollywood and Bollywood along with daily talk shows for workers on Radio Masti and projects with local media companies including Mediacorp, StarHub and Singtel.

The initiatives also include a three-month partnership with Disney to bring Indian streaming platform Hotstar to migrant workers in Singapore. The programme runs to 21 July 2020.

Hotstar’s service for migrant workers went live to Android phones at the end of last week with 85,000 hours of movies, cricket matches, live news and programmes from Star TV India. The bundle includes 2,000 movies and 900 TV shows in nine languages.

Disney said an iOS service would follow and flagged a coming-soon subscription service for other Singapore-based residents.