Singapore Government instructs SingTel and StarHub to share content

Since the new regulation applies to contracts signed from March 12 onwards, SingTel's English Premier League (EPL) programming on mio TV is unlikely to be affected until 2013. The company that wins the EPL rights in 2014, however, will have share its content with other players.

Regardless of who wins the rights to the 2014 EPL, viewers will be able to watch it on their current set-top box.

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 move, according to a report in The Straits Times, is a major overhaul to how pay-TV content is bought, sold and distributed. It is also an acknowledgment, the report stated, 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 channels, 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 of them.

In addition, costs to watch sports programming had risen from about $33 in 2000 to $74 today.

Last year in October, SingTel won the exclusive rights for EPL triggering a content war with StarHub. The telco is believed to have paid an astronomical sum to win the rights. 

Analysts have been predicting that  last year's deal could change the dynamics of Singapore's TV industry and could have a serious impact on market leader StarHub as well as other terrestrial players.

In a press statement released on Friday, StarHub has said that the new policy "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."

SingTel meanwhile has said that it will "carefully review the details and actively engage the MDA through the industry consultation process" and that its rights to the BPL and ESS channels are not affected by this announcement.