SingTel bets big on pay TV; Starhub antes up

Singapore - In what it claims is an "announcement that will shake the pay-TV market", SingTel on Wednesday revealed deals with three major US studios for its mio TV, which will give users access to TV shows within 24 hours after its US telecast.

The mio TV Season Pass service, which will launch in September, includes shows produced by Disney-ABC International Television, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros International Television Distribution.

The new service is a significant step for SingTel's pay-TV platform, which is trying to catch up to rival StarHub on the content front. When the new season of American TV shows premieres in September, mio TV customers will be the first in Asia to watch the latest episodes of primetime shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Lost. "Consumers are getting increasingly demanding. They want to get the latest TV hits ahead of anyone else and mio TV is filling this gap with this latest offering," Allen Lew, SingTel's CEO Singapore, said.

Responding to yesterday's announcement by SingTel, StarHub's head of cable TV services Patrick Lim said StarHub would launch its own video-on-demand service soon. "Video-on-Demand has not yet entered mainstream TV viewing yet in Singapore, but it will soon. In fact, StarHub will be launching our VOD services very soon, which will also carry popular TV series with advanced windows."

He added, "StarHub presently carries more than 150 channels on our pay-TV platform, covering a comprehensive range of genres such as sports, education, news, entertainment, lifestyle, music, movies, kids, variety shows and drama/TV series. At entry level, customers can select up to 29 round-the-clock channels for just S$24 a month, and this gives them value for money as they can enjoy a greater breadth of programmes at a low per-channel cost."

At press time, SingTel is still working on the pricing for Season Pass but it is understood viewers will pay for each TV series, while discounts will be afforded on bundled offers. When Season Pass launches, the mio TV service will be able to screen over 50 US series. SingTel says it is the first IPTV operator in the world to offer such a large volume of US hit shows within a day of their US telecast on a subscription-based model.

SingTel had 45,000 mio TV customers as of 30 June 2008.