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<table width="560" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" width="550">Cheaper for PRC MMs enthusiasts?
Cable battle hots up as Starhub offers KTV <!-- TITLE : end--><!--
Users can pay a flat fee of $10.70 a month for unlimited access to karaoke videos. -myp --></td></tr> <tr>
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</td></tr> <tr> <td class="content_subtitle" align="left">Fri, Jan 15, 2010
my paper </td></tr></tbody></table></td> <td width="400" align="right"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" align="right">
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</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><!-- Story Without Image / With eXtra Large Image End --> <tr> <td class="bodytext_10pt" colspan="3"><!-- CONTENT : start --> By Kenny Chee
HOME entertainment is the new battlefield for telcos. In a historic first here, Singaporeans can access tens of thousands of karaoke music videos in the comfort of their homes.
Instead of paying KTV lounge fees of up to $40 per person for a three- to four-hour slot, karaoke fans will be able to pay a flat fee of $10.70 a month for unlimited access to karaoke videos through a StarHub service called KaraOK! from next Monday.
<table width="300" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <script language="JavaScript" src="/static/ads/scripts/adsimu.js"></script> <script src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/AsiaOneNews/;pos=1;adtype=1;adtype=2;adtype=3;adtype=4;adtype=5;tile=5;sz=300x250;ord=7329259610968122?" type="text/javascript"></script> <!-- Copyright 2008 DoubleClick, a division of Google Inc. All rights reserved. --><!-- Code auto-generated on Mon Dec 21 04:02:46 EST 2009 --> <script src="http://static.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js"></script> <object id="DCF220783892" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="300" height="250">
<embed src="http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/admax_yahoo_asiaone_straitstimes_300x250_30KB_8.swf" flashvars="moviePath=http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/&moviepath=http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/&clickTag=http%3A//ad.doubleclick.net/click%253Bh%253Dv8/3923/3/0/%252a/e%253B220783892%253B0-0%253B0%253B44507900%253B4307-300/250%253B34802471/34820326/1%253B%253B%257Efdr%253D220949188%253B0-0%253B1%253B39581935%253B4307-300/250%253B34882293/34900123/1%253B%253B%257Esscs%253D%253fhttp%3A//www.healthymind.sg/howobservantareyou" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" swliveconnect="true" wmode="opaque" name="DCF220783892" base="http://static.2mdn.net/1777595" allowscriptaccess="never" width="300" height="250"></object><noscript></noscript></td></tr></tbody></table>Industry observers say that this could pose a challenge to SingTel's mio TV pay-TV platform, launched in 2007, as the competition hots up in the home-entertainment arena.</p> With StarHub losing the rights to broadcast Barclays Premier League football from this year, its karaoke service could be a means to win back market share in home entertainment from competitors, said Mr Kenneth Liew, a senior market analyst with market-research firm IDC Asia-Pacific.
Last year, SingTel won the broadcast rights from StarHub, which had held the rights for years.
Mr Liew said: "It's good to see the telcos getting creative to come up with different services to provide more content to customers."
Mr Foong King Yew, a research director with research firm Gartner, said that "competition is about offering new services regularly".
Japan and Taiwan already have paid home-karaoke services. mio TV does not have a karaoke service but, like StarHub, offers on-demand movies and TV shows.
While M1 has home-broadband services, it does not have pay-TV and other home-entertainment offerings.
The KaraOK! service is available to StarHub TV customers who have a HubStation or Hub- Station HD set-top box, which costs $8.56 a month to rent.
Users can tune in to StarHub's Channel 888 to buy a monthly subscription. There is also a 24-hour "day pass" option for $4.82.
There will be 5,000 music videos on the service initially, but 30,000 videos are expected to be up by the end of June.
Users can expect music videos from more than 10 record labels, including Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI, as well as indie labels like Ocean Butterflies.
Music videos in English, Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese and Hokkien will be accessible.
Videos for songs in languages such as Japanese, Korean and Tamil will be rolled out later.
The big winners in this equation could be music labels.
Mr Simon Nasser, marketing director with Warner Music, said karaoke has always been a part of Singaporeans' lives.
So, with a home-karaoke service like StarHub's, "why not support it if the business model is right, and benefits content owners (like us)", he said.
Mr Lim Teck Kheng, marketing director for Universal Music Singapore, said: "We see potential in providing a karaoke service in Singapore and how it can reach out to karaoke lovers."
Civil servant and karaoke fan Ng Xiangjing, 28, said the karaoke service is attractive and will pose great competition to KTV outlets.
"It's very cheap compared to what the karaoke outlets charge," he said.
[email protected]
</td></tr></tbody></table>
Cable battle hots up as Starhub offers KTV <!-- TITLE : end--><!--
Users can pay a flat fee of $10.70 a month for unlimited access to karaoke videos. -myp --></td></tr> <tr>
my paper </td></tr></tbody></table></td> <td width="400" align="right"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" align="right">
</td> <td height="15">
</form> <script> function openEmailA1AdminWindow(emailToFriendForm) { var emailToFriendPageURL = emailToFriendForm.emailToFriendPageURL.value; emailToFriendForm.action = emailToFriendPageURL; emailToFriendForm.target="_blank"; emailToFriendForm.submit(); } </script> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><!-- Story Without Image / With eXtra Large Image End --> <tr> <td class="bodytext_10pt" colspan="3"><!-- CONTENT : start --> By Kenny Chee
HOME entertainment is the new battlefield for telcos. In a historic first here, Singaporeans can access tens of thousands of karaoke music videos in the comfort of their homes.
Instead of paying KTV lounge fees of up to $40 per person for a three- to four-hour slot, karaoke fans will be able to pay a flat fee of $10.70 a month for unlimited access to karaoke videos through a StarHub service called KaraOK! from next Monday.
<table width="300" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <script language="JavaScript" src="/static/ads/scripts/adsimu.js"></script> <script src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/AsiaOneNews/;pos=1;adtype=1;adtype=2;adtype=3;adtype=4;adtype=5;tile=5;sz=300x250;ord=7329259610968122?" type="text/javascript"></script> <!-- Copyright 2008 DoubleClick, a division of Google Inc. All rights reserved. --><!-- Code auto-generated on Mon Dec 21 04:02:46 EST 2009 --> <script src="http://static.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js"></script> <object id="DCF220783892" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="300" height="250">
<embed src="http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/admax_yahoo_asiaone_straitstimes_300x250_30KB_8.swf" flashvars="moviePath=http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/&moviepath=http://static.2mdn.net/1777595/&clickTag=http%3A//ad.doubleclick.net/click%253Bh%253Dv8/3923/3/0/%252a/e%253B220783892%253B0-0%253B0%253B44507900%253B4307-300/250%253B34802471/34820326/1%253B%253B%257Efdr%253D220949188%253B0-0%253B1%253B39581935%253B4307-300/250%253B34882293/34900123/1%253B%253B%257Esscs%253D%253fhttp%3A//www.healthymind.sg/howobservantareyou" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" swliveconnect="true" wmode="opaque" name="DCF220783892" base="http://static.2mdn.net/1777595" allowscriptaccess="never" width="300" height="250"></object><noscript></noscript></td></tr></tbody></table>Industry observers say that this could pose a challenge to SingTel's mio TV pay-TV platform, launched in 2007, as the competition hots up in the home-entertainment arena.</p> With StarHub losing the rights to broadcast Barclays Premier League football from this year, its karaoke service could be a means to win back market share in home entertainment from competitors, said Mr Kenneth Liew, a senior market analyst with market-research firm IDC Asia-Pacific.
Last year, SingTel won the broadcast rights from StarHub, which had held the rights for years.
Mr Liew said: "It's good to see the telcos getting creative to come up with different services to provide more content to customers."
Mr Foong King Yew, a research director with research firm Gartner, said that "competition is about offering new services regularly".
Japan and Taiwan already have paid home-karaoke services. mio TV does not have a karaoke service but, like StarHub, offers on-demand movies and TV shows.
While M1 has home-broadband services, it does not have pay-TV and other home-entertainment offerings.
The KaraOK! service is available to StarHub TV customers who have a HubStation or Hub- Station HD set-top box, which costs $8.56 a month to rent.
Users can tune in to StarHub's Channel 888 to buy a monthly subscription. There is also a 24-hour "day pass" option for $4.82.
There will be 5,000 music videos on the service initially, but 30,000 videos are expected to be up by the end of June.
Users can expect music videos from more than 10 record labels, including Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI, as well as indie labels like Ocean Butterflies.
Music videos in English, Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese and Hokkien will be accessible.
Videos for songs in languages such as Japanese, Korean and Tamil will be rolled out later.
The big winners in this equation could be music labels.
Mr Simon Nasser, marketing director with Warner Music, said karaoke has always been a part of Singaporeans' lives.
So, with a home-karaoke service like StarHub's, "why not support it if the business model is right, and benefits content owners (like us)", he said.
Mr Lim Teck Kheng, marketing director for Universal Music Singapore, said: "We see potential in providing a karaoke service in Singapore and how it can reach out to karaoke lovers."
Civil servant and karaoke fan Ng Xiangjing, 28, said the karaoke service is attractive and will pose great competition to KTV outlets.
"It's very cheap compared to what the karaoke outlets charge," he said.
[email protected]
</td></tr></tbody></table>
