Singapore outlaws exclusive pay-TV deals    
Written by Rose Major  
Sunday, 14 March 2010 10:46


Singapore’s two pay-TV operators, StarHub and SingTel’s Mio TV, may soon have to pay even more attention to packaging and pricing strategy. Regulator the Media Development Agency (MDA) has banned pay-TV operators from offering exclusive content.

Under the revised Media Market Conduct Code, a new Public Interest Obligation requires pay-TV licensees to cross carry each other’s TV content. The onus will be very much on the operators to work out operational details such as technical and billing arrangements.

The new rules apply to any content acquired or renewed from March 12, when the MDA announced the new rules. The operators have until September to make applicable content available on a cross carriage basis.

Unfortunately for StarHub, the rules will not apply to the upcoming Premier League season, which starts in August this year. Mio winning the rights in 2009 for that competition was one of the catalysts for the MDA’s decision.

A statement from the MDA said: “Widespread use of exclusive contracts has led to a high degree of content fragmentation and is rare in international markets. Furthermore, pay TV retailers typically pay a premium for exclusive rights to content, resulting in higher content acquisition costs.

“By requiring cross carriage of exclusive content, content will be made available across more pay TV retailers. Consumers will no longer require multiple set top boxes or have to switch pay TV retailers just to enjoy exclusive content. This will facilitate greater consumer access to pay TV content, and shift the focus of competition in the market from an exclusivity-centric strategy to other aspects such as service differentiation and competitive packaging and pricing.”

Other changes to the MMCC include a beefing up of protections against anti-competitive practices by ensuring players do not leverage their own or affiliates’ market power; and requiring dominant media players to provide all media licensees, including smaller players, to purchase advertising capacity at “reasonable and non-discriminatory prices, terms and conditions”.

© Rapid TV News 2010