Singapore-based Asian Television Awards is facing legal action from regional production house, activeTV, for non-payment of fees related to the production of the 2017 Awards held over two nights (30 November & 1 December) last year.

A writ and statement of claim has been filed and will be served this week.

The annual Awards are part of the high-profile Singapore Media Festival (SMF), which is backed by Singapore government agency, the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA).

activeTV founder, Michael McKay, said last month that the company was “owed a considerable amount of money” and had been assessing all legal options for some time. The exact amount of money has not been disclosed, but is believed to be well in excess of S$200,000/US$152,643.

McKay stepped in to produce the 2017 Awards at the 11th hour on the request of Asian Television Awards Pte Ltd director and Awards’ chairman, Raymond Wong Wing Yuen.

This followed the sudden exit of original contractor, Malaysia’s Astro Productions, which also produced the 2016 event. Astro Productions isn’t commenting on its decision to back away from the 2017 event.

“By the time our involvement was in place we had about two weeks to produce the shows,” McKay told ContentAsia.

The Awards project included set and lighting design and build, crew hire, scripts for about five hours of content, pre-production including titles and some 42 nomination segments, recording voice overs, sound mix, broadcast facilities, red carpet production along with the Awards’ dinner and the televised show.

McKay has paid the bulk of sub-contractors and other suppliers for the 2017 Awards. “We are in the process of finalising those few that remain outstanding,” he said.

The IMDA supports the Awards in a corporate sponsorship agreement with Asian Television Awards Pte Ltd, a private limited entity registered with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

In a written response, the IMDA said it was aware of the outstanding payments issue between the Asian Television Awards and one of it vendors.

“We hold our partners to high levels of accountability and expect them to be responsible employers. This is an important basis on which we evaluate continuing our partner relationships,” an IMDA spokesperson said.

The IMDA declined to comment on whether the sponsorship agreement for 2018 was being renewed, saying details were “commercially sensitive”.

“For SMF, we look for partnerships that will enrich the media ecosystem and celebrate the best of Asian storytelling. Our support for SMF event partners could include monetary or in kind contributions. However, we are unable to reveal the sponsorship details for our SMF event partners as they are commercially sensitive,” the IMDA said in an emailed answer to our questions.

Wong has responded to our request for comment in two emails he headlined “Confidential, Without Prejudice & Off-the-Record”. Professional ethics prevent us from telling you what he said. No further comment has been offered.

It is not clear whether the Asian Television Awards Pte Ltd has paid other vendors. A Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre spokesperson said business dealings with customers are “strictly confidential”, and declined further comment.

McKay has confirmed that crews setting up the Awards at the Singapore Suntec Convention Centre were asked to leave by Jonathan Low from Minus 2Plus Productions for Suntec. Crew members were then locked out of the venue. This included activeTV. Official reasons were not given. The crews were permitted back into the venue after the Asian Television Awards managing director, Cindy Ng, met onsite with the venue executives.

Suntec lists the 2018 Awards on its website for Wednesday (5 Dec) and Thursday (6 Dec). The dates already published in the call for entries for this year’s event are Thursday (6 Dec) and Friday (7 Dec).

According to an ad published in December last year, the Asian Television Awards are organised by Contineo Media, publishers of industry trade magazine Television Asia Plus, which some consider to be a competitor to ContentAsia.

Raymond Wong Wing Yuen is listed as a director of both the Asian Television Awards Pte Ltd and Contineo Media, which made trade industry headlines in February this year for not paying Central Provident Fund contributions.

According to the Singapore Government’s Ministry of Manpower website, Contineo Media has been fined multiple times over the past year for contravening the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Act. This includes a S$18,000/US$13,753 fine imposed on 22 February 2018 for six counts of late payments of CPF contributions for employees, and S$12,600/US$9,628 on 24 October last year and S$6,600/US$5,043 in February 2017 for the same offences. A S$2,000/US$1,528 fine was levied in June 2017 for one offence. The total for last year and this year comes to S$39,200/US$29,954.

The 2017 Asian Television Awards received 1,350 entries, according to the official broadcast. Entry fees for last year were S$240/US$183 per entry, which means the Asian Television Awards should have received S$324,000/US$247,578 in entry fees.