Singapore's Info-comms Media Development Authority (IMDA) has terminated its sponsorship of the annual Asian Television Awards. In a short statement released today, the IMDA said the parting of ways had been mutual.

The statement read: "The Asian Television Awards (ATA) Pte Ltd and IMDA, which hosts the SMF [Singapore Media Festival], have mutually agreed to terminate the sponsorship agreement for the Asian Television Awards".

The confirmation follows weeks of speculation, during which the IMDA declined say whether it was in or out.

The IMDA's strong support for the awards has been closely monitored since it emerged that companies related to Awards chairman, Raymond Wong, had failed to pay mandatory Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions for staff members. The issue escalated in April this year, when the Awards production partner, activeTV, took legal action to try to recover about S$300,000 from last year's event.