In economics, we learnt that monopolies are not desirable and having more competition will be good for consumers because of more variety and lower prices.
Not so for the pay-TV industry in Singapore. Perhaps the market is too small to have another competitor. Ever since the government opened up the pay-TV industry (well, not really since there is only one other competitor - it's still like a duopoly), I think Singaporean consumers, especially soccer fans, have suffered.
Most people in Singapore sign up for pay-TV because of soccer. Because of the Barclays Premier League. So both SingTel and Starhub tried to outbid each other, resulting in higher prices paid for the rights to broadcast the matches. And the price that I have to pay as a consumer to get my weekly soccer fix rose from the original $12 to the $25 that I pay today. And because SingTel won the bid to broadcast the matches for the next 3 years, I have to sign up for a SingTel account and get another set-top box, since my family watches other programmes on Starhub, at my inconvenience. Hopefully the situation will improve when the new law kicks in, that there will be no more exclusive content for either company.
And because SingTel can pay so much for the broadcast rights to the Premier League, I feel that FIFA purposely held out for more money for the World Cup, leading to a deal that was done only 35 days before the first ball is kicked. Guess what? I now have to pay $70 for the World Cup when all I paid was $10 for the previous World Cup. If you haven't done the sums, that's a seven-fold increase!
RIDICULOUS! I have decided I'm not going to pay for this, especially since the free-to-air channel is going to show the semi-finals and final. I will just follow the exploits of Spain, Netherlands and England on the internet!
I completely agree! What a rip-off....
ReplyDelete