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SINGAPORE: The Media Development Authority is still studying how best to regulate the pay-TV market. For now, it will not intervene in the exclusive sale of football broadcasting rights.
The issue was raised in Parliament on Monday, with MPs concerned that competition between service providers StarHub and SingTel would lead to consumers losing out.
Free market competition in the pay-TV market has so far led to a wider choice of programmes for consumers.
But the sale of exclusive English Premier League broadcasting rights to SingTel has prompted MPs to ask whether the government should step in. They were concerned that consumers would end up paying more.
Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, said: "Hypothetically, we can tell whoever it is - service providers - that you can only charge subscribers a certain amount. And so they would bid accordingly.
"But bear in mind, that the content owner is not obligated to sell us this. And so the content owner may very well say that, 'I will not sell to Singapore'. And we will be at the greater loss, particularly for the consumers who say they are prepared to pay the price for the package."
Mr Lui added that it is too early to tell if the pay-TV market is too small to sustain competition and he said the situation is different from the free-to-air market which tried to introduce competition a few years ago.
He said: "In the case of SPH's MediaWorks and MediaCorp, they decided that the free-to-air television market was not large enough to sustain both players, and hence made a commercial decision to consolidate. For the pay TV market, the competition landscape is still evolving."
The Media Development Authority is concerned about the growing number of exclusive arrangements between content owners and service providers which could deter newcomers.
Previously when StarHub Cable Vision was the only provider, Mr Lui said there were only about 64 channels locked into these exclusive contract arrangements. Now, that has more than doubled, to 131 channels.
Mr Lui said these barriers to entry go against the government's aim of encouraging more service providers to enter the market when the Next Generation Broadband Network gets off the ground.
Replying to MPs, Mr Lui said that regulation will not come easy. Authorities have to bear in mind international rules on commercial agreements for the broadcast of sports and these have to be balanced against the interests of both the market and consumers. - CNA/vm
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