Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the Straits Times that a Competition Act was being studied by the trade and industry ministry.

The public feuding between Singapore Press Holdings and MediaCorp, as they launch new television channels and newspapers, was "much more enthusiastic" than the government expected, Lee said in an interview published May 22.

Some of the aggression was unnecessary, he said. "There has to be a balance."

There was similar competition when the telecommunications industry was deregulated last year, with incumbent giant Singapore Telecommunications battling newcomer StarHub.

Lee said that when the government decided to liberalise the media industry, the aim was to allow the publishing and broadcasting giants to respond to the challenges posed by new technology.

But it would be undesirable if one player knocked out the other, leaving Singapore with a media monopoly, he said.

"In other countries, they have competition commissions to regulate this. We don't yet.

"It's two players, not hundreds of small players, so the competition will need to be managed."

As part of the media shakeup in Singapore, broadcasting specialist MediaCorp has branched out into print, publishing Today, a daily give-away tabloid.

Singapore Press Holdings, the established publisher of the main English language daily Straits Times and several other newspapers in Chinese, Tamil and Malay, has this month launched two television channels.