Huaikong

SINGAPORE : Two weeks after sports fans found out they would have to sign up with SingTel if they wanted their dose of Uefa Cup and Champions League football from next year, rival pay-TV operator StarHub said it would be charging extra for viewer access to the Euro 2008 matches.

A "season pass" for the tournament held from June 8 to 30 will cost S$10 (before GST) for StarHub Digital Cable Sports Group subscribers, if they sign up before May 9.

Those who sign up later will have to pay S$20, while non-Sports Group customers can buy the pass for S$50. This comes after subscription fees for the Sports Group were hiked from S$15 to S$25 in October.

During Euro 2004, when StarHub held the exclusive rights to 23 of the 31 matches, sports channel subscribers did not have to cough up extra money to watch the tournament. So, why the difference this time, fans asked?

"Like most key sports properties, the Uefa Euro 2008 broadcast rights did not come cheap," said StarHub's head of services and solutions Adit Harinasuta in a statement.

"Nonetheless, we are constantly looking at ways to reward our loyal Sports Group customers with better value, and are pleased to offer them significant savings with our early-bird discounts."

Unlike in 2004, matches will be streamed live across all three StarHub platforms - cable TV, mobile and online - and in high-definition format. There are also not one, but four dedicated channels this time.

All viewers in Singapore will get to catch the four key games - the opening match, both semi-finals and the final - for free.

Still, fans TODAY spoke to were unhappy at having to pay extra. Civil servant Cai Chengji, 26, argued that winning the exclusive rights for matches already guaranteed StarHub more sign-ups to its Sports Group. He plans to give the Euro 2008 a miss in protest against the "incessant increase in prices".

But healthcare manager Esther Tan might buy the season pass. "The timing of
the matches is usually early in the morning, so to go somewhere like a pub to watch when you need to work the next day is very inconvenient," she said. - TODAY/il

Huaikong

SH strikes again.last time is WC2006 now this.really bloodsucker.pity those soccer fanatic....

delight

this is what competition does to prices. both starhub and singtel compete for the rights thus increasing the license fees. and these extra costs are passed to who else but consumers.

milken

who knows maybe they are alliance instead of competitor... usin this kind of tactic and strategically earned more profit, anyway the market is almost monopolised...

poor soccer fan

sarcastic

why make things so difficult for consumers leh?

both companies fight and end of day still is garmen profited from it.
one of the companies juz buy all the rights lah and juz charge the new fee they wan lor.

now, lidat must have 2 cables boxes to view soccer. sibei bo liao. very troublesome leh since
both companies the garmen got share wat, rite? haiz...

summore buy uefa & champ league, these matches starts at wkday late nite, how much viewers will stay tat late and to work nxt morning?
they most throw away the chance to watch it and dun subscribe and yet Singtel wans to charge more?

好梦幻.....

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love is dead

Huaikong

the worst ting is that need to subscribe to 2 providers for full range of soccer next seaon.kaoz.where got save $$.....

haruX

watch soccer on tv also must pay... -.-...

Huaikong

watch sleague lah.foc on fri nite every week.....haha

Bry_n

cme on guys..do online streaming..screw the providers !

sarcastic

online streaming telecast every match meh???

好梦幻.....

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love is dead

Huaikong

Football fans bear brunt of pay-TV battle

Wang Meng Meng
Sun, Apr 06, 2008
The Straits Times

Football fans will have to pay more to get their weekly fix of quality matches on TV, but that's the reality they will have to live with.
The Media Development Authority (MDA) has said it will not intervene even though fans have to dig deeper into their pockets for pay-TV subscriptions to matches such as the English Premier League (EPL) and Champions League.

This comes as pay-TV powerhouse StarHub and SingTel's fledgling mio TV battle it out for football telecast rights.

MDA's stand is that the free market approach is the right one, and competition is the way to go.


Its media policy director Ling Pek Ling told The Sunday Times that 'competition has helped widen the choice for viewers', and pointed out how StarHub introduced the Eurosports channel after competition came in.
She added: 'The authority encourages and facilitates competition, but the players should be sensitive in their pricing.'

She cited Hong Kong as an example of how competition had played itself out in a positive way.

i-Cable was the dominant player there before 2003 with 656,000 subscribers. But instead of seeing its customer base shrink when rival now TV debuted that year, both firms witnessed substantial growth.

Both players ended up sharing the market with 882,000 subscribers each today.

In any case, she said, viewers are not entirely powerless and cannot be underestimated.

'Consumers do call the shots and they can opt not to buy the pay-TV packages.'

MDA's remarks come amid complaints from fans following the announcement by SingTel on March 20 that it had won the rights to screen Champions League and Uefa Cup matches on mio TV from next year.

Good news for the ambitious new pay-TV player, but bad news for football fans.

SingTel's victory means that from next year, in addition to subscribing to StarHub's $49 plan for EPL - which includes the Sports Group ($25) and the compulsory three Basic Groups ($24) - fans will have to pay more if they want to catch Champions League football as well.

Currently, those who sign up for mio TV must spend a minimum of $16.05 a month, as well as make a one-time payment of $53.50 for installation and $64.20 for a compatible telephone modem to hook up.

Without disclosing figures, a SingTel spokesman said it will price its European coverage 'fairly, considering that fans have to pay for other football content as well'.

SingTel's announcement follows news last October that StarHub was raising its Sports Group charges for EPL matches from $15 to $25 a month. So, from next year, fans will have to pay at least $65.05 in monthly subscriptions if they want to catch both EPL and Champions League matches.

Indeed, the StarHub-SingTel rivalry means Singapore fans will have to cough up more than those in other Asian countries to get their football fix.

'It never ends,' lamented businessman Zac Leong, 48, an Arsenal fan. 'We consumers have suffered long enough and it's getting out of hand. Isn't competition supposed to push prices down?'

Another bugbear for fans: the need for a separate mio TV telephone modem in addition to the StarHub set-top box, a move that teacher and Manchester United fan Subash Pillay, 31, believes is 'too inconvenient'.

Project manager Chan Chong Hong, 35, another Man U supporter, wondered: 'What if M2B (the smallest pay-TV operator here) wins rights to the FA Cup? Will we need three set-top boxes?''

Senior analyst Marc Einstein from research firm Frost and Sullivan said: 'It's all about content when you are pushing the bundled services. And it's fair to say consumers are bearing the cost of this competition.'

Liverpool fanVivek Govind, 31, said he will sign up for mio TVbecause 'the temptation of football is just too great, even though I don't care about the other channels on mio TV'.

But Mr Leong is not buying it, saying: 'I can afford mio TV but I will not get it as a matter of principle. It is unfair to get another subscription plan just for Champions League games.'

Huaikong

mda dun care.tink by 2010 watch soccer on tv will be freaking ex....

perfect_mind

If seriously no choice, everybody boycott loh..then singtel will lose money and price will drop...but it is quite dumb for Singtel to come to cable industry when there have nothing much to offer to consumer...