Where to now for StarHub?

Singapore - StarHub has a major challenge on its hands after its rival SingTel was awarded the lucrative contract to broadcast the English Premier League in Singapore.

SingTel will welcome the Premier League rights and ESPN Star Sports three channels, which includes coverage of several other sports such as the FA Cup and Wimbledon, from mid 2010. The switch of telcos presents a big issue for StarHub as many subscribers are expected to change to mio TV to watch the Premier League in Singapore.

Kathleen Syron, StarHub's head of content, said the teclo is still in good shape as its football properties will include the Spanish La Liga until 2012 and it will be airing the German Bundesliga, Coca Cola Priemership playoffs, European World Cup qualifiers, South American qualifiers and the Copa Libertadores.

"We will be reviewing our sports package in 2010, so it may be premature to make any assumptions on customers' reaction," Syron told Marketing.

"And of course, besides sports content, StarHub has the leadership position on other content genres that appeal to the masses.  StarHub carries over 130 channels offering key genres such as education, entertainment, drama and movies, in addition to sports.  We will continue to review our content line-up periodically, as well as monitor growth and churn figures closely."

But Stuart Clark, managing director of MPG Singapore, believes the loss of the Premier League is a "big problem" for StarHub.

"Football is a key driver in pay TV, and EPL is the crown jewels. And from an advertising point of view, EPL delivers an attractive environment for advertisers targeting young males, which is big money. But not every household in Singapore is dependent on EPL. StarHub can use the money saved from EPL rights to support really outstanding content in other areas," he said.

"Although they deny it, I suppose SingTel will have to charge a healthy premium to cover the cost of securing these rights. I think seeing their pricing strategy will be very interesting. EPL is obviously a huge opportunity to drive up subscriber numbers, but on the other hand even for EPL there is a price point where consumers/fans will say no."

Jim Goh, former executive director of business development in Asia Pacific for Omnicom Media Group, agrees and said: "My perspective is that EPL die-hards amongst StarHub's current 250,000 sports package subscribers will likely cross over to Singtel Mio when they take over the rights from August 2010".

"With the three-year contract, Singtel will ensure that it capitalises on its progressive stronger portfolio of sports programs and rights under its belt which includes the three ESPN Star Sports channels; Formula One, FA Cup, Wimbledon, Australia Open and US Golf Open.  This will help Singtel Mio increase it current base of subscribers," Goh said.

"What this means to Starhub is that it will lose some of the sports package revenue estimated at S$75M.  It will have to find other revenue, especially of sports related (football) platforms, to cover for the loss of EPL broadcast rights revenue."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

More quality Lighthouse titles

Managing people? For HR and leadership strategy, Human Resources has it covered.

Want to get on the right side of the procurement department?
Direct them to Procurement Asia