STARHUB & SINGTEL must share exclusive content
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The Government on Friday announced that pay-TV providers like SingTel and StarHub will have to carry exclusive content purchased by another player, a move expected to make such content more accessible and cheaper for consumers.
GOOD news for pay-TV viewers.
Whoever wins the rights to the 2014 English Premier League (EPL), they will be able to watch it on their current set-top box.
The Government on Friday announced that pay-TV providers like SingTel and StarHub will have to carry exclusive content purchased by another player, a move expected to make such content more accessible and cheaper for consumers. This is unlike the situation today where EPL matches - exclusive to SingTel - are only available on its mio TV service.
Under the revised Media Market Conduct Code, pay-TV providers must also charge all viewers the same fee for exclusive content they have the rights to, whether they are its customers or another player's.
The new regulations, though, will apply to all contracts signed from Friday, said Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, who announced the changes in Parliament. He added that the new measure will not apply retrospectively to existing agreements such as the 2010 to 2013 BPL broadcast rights.
This means that SingTel will not have to share its 2010 to 2013 English Premier League live broadcasts with StarHub, although the company that wins the right to show the 2014 EPL will have to do so. The Straits Times understands that most pay-TV contracts are for two to three year durations, so most pay-TV programmes should be viewable on all set-top boxes by 2013, and many before that.
This move, a major overhaul to how pay-TV content is bought, sold and distributed, is also acknowledgment that the intense competition between the two rival pay-TV providers has hurt consumers in convenience, choice and cost.
A Government study on the pay-TV market, for instance, found that out of the 179 pay-TV channel, only seven are common to both players. And of 16 channels popular with viewers worldwide, Singapore was the only country that had exclusive arrangements for all the channels.
Costs to watch sports programming too, had risen, from about $33 in 2000 to $74 today. This situation, said Mr Lui, was 'unlikely to self-correct in the near future, and steps need to be taken to address this market failure'.
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the government should just step in, make mediacorp purchase the rights.. tell singtel and starhub to shut up.. offer it a cheaper rate then now and yet still keep the profits they would've otherwise earnt from taxes and maybe more for the effort.. and they will win many votes in this coming general elections.
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Response from StarHub
STARHUB notes the comments made by the Acting Minister and MDA in regard to content exclusivity on Friday. While we will be making our comments on MDA's consultation paper in due course, we would like to provide a few points at this juncture.
In regard to the new content exclusivity regime proposed by MDA, we note that it appears to be similar to StarHub's proposal of November 2009 when we first suggested the idea of carrying future Barclay Premier League broadcast carriages over our cable TV network.
As such, StarHub fully supports the Government's efforts to ensure fair and reasonable content costs, as this will ultimately benefit StarHub and our customers. In addition, we support the idea of having a common set-top box for consumers in Singapore, as it gives our customers greater convenience, cost-savings and quality assurance.
We understand that the proposed regime will not be applied retrospectively to StarHub's existing agreements with our channel partners. As a result, the new regime will have little impact on us in the foreseeable future.
Due to strict confidentiality and business obligations, we are not able to provide details of our existing agreements with our content partners, nor will we be able to provide information on upcoming content that is up for renewal or bidding.
With over a decade of operating a pay TV service in Singapore, StarHub has accumulated extensive experience in delivering not only a comprehensive range of pay TV content in the market, but also in ensuring that the overall customer experience continues to be excellent.
We have always worked hard to innovate our services, as can be seen in our Interactive TV and On-Demand offerings and we will continue to do so in future, in order to further differentiate ourselves over our competitors.
Response from M1'WE welcome this positive development. It opens up the opportunity for M1 to enter the pay-TV market to offer a full range of services to our customers.
Consumers will ultimately benefit from more choices and a greater variety of content at competitive prices'.
Response from SingTel'WE will carefully review the details and actively engage the MDA through the industry consultation process. Our rights to the BPL and ESS channels are not affected by this announcement.'
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So now what, are Starhub users going to be able to watch the coming season of BPL, cups and UEFA?
I've already turned to streaming thanks to Singtel.
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not this coming season till 2013 when singtel's right ends.
i think the government forgot we are in 2010 only
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i think both telcos would be dragging their feet
because of singtel and starhub's incompetence, citizens have no choice but to watch online. free and easy some more!
lately have been watching all soccer matches through Sopcast
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Don't mean to turn this into a political thread but things start moving only during election year.
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look at what their incompetence has cost us.
either no world cup or sky high subscription fee.
they set the precedence when they bidded sky high for the BPL rights. from then BPL will expect nothing less.
its true they won it but all consumers lost.
i will never ever buy or subscribe to anything from singtel.
i wonder who was the smart alec who suggested they bid that amount.
anyone knows?
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SingTel has just wasted their money to develop the mioTV platform, only for the customers it wish to retain to stay with StarHub.
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Who here prefer using cable
than using ur telephone line .... -
singtel really spoiler.
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singtel wont nvr expect this to be coming.
a real slap on their face.
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in the end, market economy without some intervention cannot serve to benefit consumers which was precisely what led to the recent crisis.....
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Originally posted by charlize:
Don't mean to turn this into a political thread but things start moving only during election year.
smart guess..
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Only in Singapore where "competition" results in higher prices.