Saturday, November 14, 2009

Battle of Pay TV Operators (2)

There is a big battle between SingTel and Starhub over PayTV. SingTel has won the rights to boradcast the English Premier League (EPL) matches in 2010. Consumers have to switch set top boxes to SingTel to watch these matches. If they wish to watch programmes from both operators, they need two set top boxes and two sets of wiring in their home.

This is time for the regulator (i.e Media Development Authority) to come in and require the PayTV operators to separate the two operations, namely to operate a platform and to provide the contents. There will be a separate charge for using the platform and subscribing to the content. Each platform operator is required to carry the content of any approved provider.

This will give the best choice to consumers. There is competition between the platform operators in pricing and service. There is also a free choice of contents.
The content should not be bundled up with the platform.

There is also a need for the Competition Commission to come in and give a ruling. The Commission is required to ensure that there is free competition in Singapore to give choice to consumers. The bundling of platform and content is monopolistic and bad for consumers. I hope that the Commission will also have a say on this matter.

Tan Kin Lian
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1 comment:

Vincent Sear said...

StarHub TV is fixed schedule programming carried through cable and SingTel TV is carried through phone line with some fixed schedule programming (e.g. live sports) and lots of on-demand programming. Both are different platforms and even for people willing to pay for both, two set-top boxes would be a hassle.

StarHub also carries the free-to-air programming (i.e. Channels 5, 8, U etc.) For that, it was awarded with the monopoly for cable.

Ideally, there should be only one cable and one set-top box that carries both StarHub and SingTel channels, up to the subscribers to choose. Unfortunately, the earlier agreement between MDA and StarHub means that's unlikely to happen.

The full scale of the effects of SingTel winning the EPL rights will be felt only next season (from August 2010) at the pubs and coffeeshops. They'll probably have no choice but to wire up with SingTel or else lose customers.

November 14, 2009 9:35 AM

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