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Soccer fans are up in arms again over their access to football matches on Singapore's pay television channels.
As SingTel has once again clinched a three-year deal with the Football Association Premier League (FAPL), SingTel mio subscribers are rejoicing, while StarHub consumers are left wondering once again if they should switch or suffer an additional TV subscription to watch the matches.
In the meantime, many football fans are asking - didn't the Media Development Authority's (MDA) August 2011 cross-carriage rules dictate that content should be available across all pay TV providers?
Not quite. In a nifty manoeuvre, SingTel managed to clinch a non-exclusive deal with the FAPL - meaning that the content falls outside of the cross-carriage rules. Only exclusive content is subject to the MDA cross-carriage guidelines, part of the Media Market Conduct Code.
SingTel has effectively sidestepped the cross-carriage issue with a non-exclusive deal, and what consumers are waiting for is to see if StarHub signs a deal with the FAPL, and how much it will cost compared to SingTel mio TV.
This one-upmanship is not healthy for the industry, and the resultant offering war will mean duplicate content being offered by both providers, and ultimately costs being passed on to consumers.
WHAT DOES CROSS-CARRIAGE DO?
- http://www.todayonline.com/Commenta...-0000013/Back-to-square-one-on-cross-carriage
As SingTel has once again clinched a three-year deal with the Football Association Premier League (FAPL), SingTel mio subscribers are rejoicing, while StarHub consumers are left wondering once again if they should switch or suffer an additional TV subscription to watch the matches.
In the meantime, many football fans are asking - didn't the Media Development Authority's (MDA) August 2011 cross-carriage rules dictate that content should be available across all pay TV providers?
Not quite. In a nifty manoeuvre, SingTel managed to clinch a non-exclusive deal with the FAPL - meaning that the content falls outside of the cross-carriage rules. Only exclusive content is subject to the MDA cross-carriage guidelines, part of the Media Market Conduct Code.
SingTel has effectively sidestepped the cross-carriage issue with a non-exclusive deal, and what consumers are waiting for is to see if StarHub signs a deal with the FAPL, and how much it will cost compared to SingTel mio TV.
This one-upmanship is not healthy for the industry, and the resultant offering war will mean duplicate content being offered by both providers, and ultimately costs being passed on to consumers.
WHAT DOES CROSS-CARRIAGE DO?
- http://www.todayonline.com/Commenta...-0000013/Back-to-square-one-on-cross-carriage