Local flavour: in an increasingly fragmented television market, it seems that ethnic segmentation remains a key strategy in broadcasters vying for advertising dollars. For many, the new TV season has seen production companies and in-house broadcasting departments continue to focus on tried-and-true ideas, with scant innovation to test waters.(country focus)

Locally, we've had so many holidays, the year actually just began in March. Our production budgets are shrinking and the MIM issue isn't helping."

On the other hand, facilities such as VHQ Post are actually bullish about the year ahead. According to executive producer Ng, "Given the trend for the latter part of 2003, we expect 2004 to be a good year characterised by high workloads undertaken with competitive margins. The industry is still seen as buoyant and the market is optimistic, and this is likely to be mirrored in consumer spending and advertisers' ...