Dec 16 2009
Is Singtel A Monopolist?
First was the iPhone exclusivity that belonged to Singtel. Then Starhub lost out on airing the EPL and Champions League to mio TV, Singtel (again). Now, it seems that Singapore may not even get to air the 2010 World Cup on local TV stations.
Sure you may argue that Starhub and M1 also sells the iPhone 3GS now, but if you think about it carefully, Singtel had the sole distributorship for about a year, of which most of the “Apple Crazy” consumers would have already gotten their mobile phone. Only an extremely small percentage would still be keen in the iPhone offered by M1 and Starhub.
So again, a huge slice of the pie was already munched on, before leaving the scraps for others. In addition I’m sure there were many people who switched from their existing telco provider to Singtel in order to purchase the latest 3GS.
At this point in time, I’m sure that the damage has already been done, and it has also been carefully calculated that revenue would not increase should Singtel retain the exclusive iPhone distributorship. Hence opening up the competition to others at this point in time.
Since the start of cable television in Singapore, Starhub was the one that aired the English Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, and other important soccer matches. Of which I’m sure ESPN, Star Sports, are the most lucrative channels because of the huge soccer fan base in Singapore.
When Singtel’s mio TV was launched, I hardly thought it would take over Starhub’s position as Singapore’s leading cable TV operator. Though mio TV had its own target group such as some channels for kids (KidsCo), and channels that aired dialect TV shows, it was pretty obvious it still isn’t enough to be successful. Just imagine how many people in Singapore would watch Hokkien TV shows / Cartoons compared to Sports / HK TV Serials?
To be honest, I think it was a wise move of mio TV to secure the rights to air EPL and other popular soccer matches in Singapore. Even though the profit margins would be very thin (or almost none) after fighting it out with Starhub over the bidding war, the case would be very similar to iPhone. SCV Maxonline viewers will have no choice but to switch to mio TV if they want to continue catching their favourite soccer teams live in action. (and I’m sure that’s going to be the case)
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