Singapore’s Football Fans Upset Over SingTel’s EPL Win – MDA May Intervene in Pay TV Market

October 3, 2009

By Wayang Times

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Netizens have expressed shock and outrage over SingTel’s securing of exclusive rights to the English Premier League (EPL) for three years.

In a stunning coup, the telco giant announced on Thursday it had won the rights to broadcast EPL matches for three years from August 2010, effectively ending Starhub’s 12-year reign as the only local cable provider to screen the games.

The news drew almost 200 comments within 24 hours on online portal MSN, with the bulk venting their anger and frustration at having to migrate to SingTel’s mioTV platform for their football fix from next year onwards.

One netizen nicknamed ‘not amused at all’ hailed the episode as “probably the biggest uproar (our nation has had) in our short history”, while ‘dtoo’ called it “a sad day for true English football fans”.

Added fellow netizen ‘Sing-tel-a-pore’: “Yes we r football maniacs.. yes we r football fanatics… yes we r the football “home” hooligans.. but dat doesnt mean U guyz can kick us, the consumers, around like a football.” (sic)

Calls for a boycott of SingTel’s stable of cable and telco services also rang loud, with some forming groups on other social networking sites such as Facebook to protest what they had described as anti-competitive measures.

Said ‘tsunami’: “It is about time poor consumers like us (one hit after another) stand and make our stand, or forever be subjected to such commercially driven practices and suffer in pain and silence.” (sic)

Others said they will cancel their cable subscriptions and head to the pubs and coffeeshops – which will have to switch to SingTel’s offerings to appease their football-crazy customers- – for their regular football fix.

A few however urged restraint, urging Singaporeans to wait for SingTel to announce pricing before passing the verdict.

Singapore after all, said ‘Said..SG’, promotes fair competition. “I am perfectly ok for SingTel to be the new provideras they are the ones willing to fork out more dollars than their competitors, as long as their services are not more expensive,” the netizen said.

SingTel has said that it will announce its pricing plans only later, but Singapore chief executive officer, Mr Allen Lew, gave his assurance that the company will not charge more than what fans are already paying for Starhub’s service.

In another blow to Starhub, its rivals also announced on Thursday that the ESPN Star Sports’ stable of sports networks will be migrating to the latter’s mioTV platform from mid-2010.

This means fans who also want to watch Formula One races, the 2012 London Games and Wimbledon – among others – will have to swtich from Starhub or subscribe to two pay-TV plans.

Unsurprisingly, current mioTV subscribers were escastic with the news.

Said ‘ex-StarHubber’: “This is great for those who switched from Starhub to SngTel for a number of reasons, such as better broadband etc.

The only reason I was holding on to Starhub Cable was the Sports Group. Now, I can finally be free of Starhub and embrace (SingTel) fully.”

mioTV currently has a subscriber base of about 100,000, far lagging StarHub’s 530,000 subscribers.

The sentiments of the significantly larger StarHub camp were summed up by netizen ‘soccer fans’, who said: “Most of us are sad and angry because these two companies are trying all means to get profit out of our love and passion on soccer.” (sic)

More melancholic about the announcement was ‘whyyouysolikethat’.

“Gone will be the moments where buddies can sit down over drinks and talk about ‘last night’s game’ and enjoy the time spent,” the netizen said.

“Not everyone has the luxury to swap, let alone have double subscriptions.”

Source: MSN

The government is aware of consumer concerns over the local pay TV market, said Acting Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lui Tuck Yew on Friday.

RAdm Lui’s comments followed SingTel’s announcement that it has secured exclusive broadcast rights to the English Premier League (EPL) for three years, starting from 2010.

Football fans in Singapore are concerned that they may have to pay premium rates to catch their favourite matches. Some have also complained about having to fork out money for multiple set-top boxes as they switch to SingTel’s mio service.

Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) has indicated that it will evaluate whether direct intervention in the local pay TV market is needed.

MDA said it is monitoring the situation and will consider the implications of the final agreement of the EPL bid. SingTel has yet to set its pricing policy, but added that rates will be competitive.

RAdm Lui said the government is mindful that under the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, the proliferation of set-top boxes for a variety of content might be a problem and that different agencies will look into the issue to come up with solutions.

He said the government will also contact local pay TV service providers on this matter.

“What we will be doing is we will invite SingTel and StarHub to come in and share with us their plans and their intentions, going forward. When we have a better understanding of what they intend to do, that will put us in a better position to determine if any intervention is needed,” he said.

Source: Channel News Asia

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