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S'pore finally scores the World Cup. But viewers have to pay over 4 times more

makapaaa

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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published May 8, 2010
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>S'pore finally scores the World Cup
But viewers have to pay over 4 times more

By WINSTON CHAI
SPECULATION over the fate of the 2010 World Cup broadcast can now be laid to rest. The telcos have finally scored a last-minute goal with Fifa but the flipside is consumers will have to pay more than four times more to get in on the action.

<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The event's broadcast rights for Singapore were eventually sealed yesterday morning with only 35 days to go before the curtain raiser between host nation South Africa and Mexico on June 11.
All 64 matches will be shown 'live' on two dedicated channels on SingTel's Mio TV platform and StarHub's cable television service. Consumers will also be able to catch the games on their mobile phones and computers at no additional cost. Four of these - the opening game, two semi-finals and the final - could also be screened on MediaCorp's free-to-air channels but this is pending Fifa's approval.
The news should bring some solace to Singaporeans who have flooded newspaper and online forums with complaints in the last five months over a possible World Cup blackout. It even escalated to become an issue during parliamentary debate. However, cheers across soccer-mad Singapore could be muted somewhat by a major price hike for catching the tournament this time around.
SingTel and StarHub have unveiled identical World Cup packages, charging $66 for early-birds who sign up before the end of this month. This figure is nearly 4.5 times higher than the $15 fee levied by StarHub for a similar promotion in 2006.
From June 1, the price will be raised to $88 across the board.
Businesses such as pubs and restaurants will have to pay between $2,888 and $4,888 to show the tournament on one TV screen within their premises.
'We have done some market surveys to look at the pricing,' said StarHub's chief operating officer Tan Tong Hai. 'I think it's reasonable,' said Edward Ying, SingTel's chief of content and media services, adding that it will cost Singaporeans only around $1 a match.
The hike was inevitable as Fifa has jacked up its asking price. According to Mr Ying, it took nearly a year to put pen to paper after StarHub and SingTel decided on a joint-bid approach for World Cup 2010.
The operators had submitted multiple offers to Fifa over the past few months but all of them were rejected. BT understands that the parties reached a compromise only last week and proceeded to draft the official contract a few days later.
Fifa's local sales agent, Football Media Services, was believed to have demanded $40 million initially but the final price tag for Singapore could be as much as 50 per cent lower. The telcos declined to disclose the amount they paid to secure the rights, citing contract confidentiality.
'It's (the delay) all about price. The (Fifa's) initial demands were quite high. If we agreed on those prices, it won't be $66,' Mr Ying told reporters at a joint media briefing with StarHub yesterday evening.
'We all want to shorten the negotiation period but we have to negotiate until something is acceptable (to all),' StarHub's Mr Tan stressed.
The protracted deal leaves the operators with only a month to secure sponsors to help defray the cost of their World Cup broadcasts. Priority will go to existing Fifa partners such as Visa and Coca Cola before the door is open to other businesses, Mr Ying said. 'The objective is to break even. Whether we break even depends on subscriptions,' he added.
Besides having the dubious honour of being among the last nations to clinch the World Cup rights, Singapore also appears to be the only Asian country to have multiple broadcasters for the event. According to a Fifa document published in February, there is only one broadcaster in every country which has been sanctioned to carry the World Cup then. Although SingTel and StarHub were planning for a joint bid, Fifa eventually awarded them individual non-exclusive broadcast rights instead, the telcos revealed.
This means the two operators will pay Fifa separately instead of forking out a combined, lump-sum payment under a joint-bid scenario. 'Our plan is to submit a joint bid but the best outcome is a non-exclusive arrangement for both parties,' StarHub's Mr Tan explained.
Joint bids are frowned upon as it could set a precedence for other broadcasters to follow suit and thin the coffers from media licensing. This is widely seen as a key contributor to the year-long impasse.
Fifa is reportedly looking to make US$2.7 billion from the sale of the television rights this time round. It netted 1.2 billion euros (S$2.13 billion) from media rights sale in 2006.
Individual licences could also avoid the tricky issue of having to split the 64 matches between SingTel and StarHub.
The green camp's cable television base is around 541,000, more than double SingTel's 200,000 mio TV customer tally.
And instead of being a one-off truce, the two bickering rivals do not rule out joining forces in the future. SingTel's Mr Ying said his company and SingTel will 'try to put aside our differences' for 'other major events of national interest'. The government's new cross-carriage mandate could also help foster further cooperation between the competing factions.
'Cross carriage will likely lower content acquisition prices in future as telcos are less likely to fork out more to outbid its competitor unless there is a huge advantage for doing so,' said Kenneth Liew, a research manager with technology analyst firm IDC. 'It will also likely prevent fiascos such as this year's World Cup broadcast rights.'
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