Photo by jurvetson

Seems like the government is really trying to promote competition by the telcos by making sure telcos can cross carry Pay TV content.

What does this mean to each telco?

How it works out for Singtel
Many felt that Singtel is the biggest loser here.

1. Offer Starhub’s content and create a more comprehensive bundle to compete in an area they were weaker than starhub.
2. They could potentially have to share EPL content with Starhub. this is good as it will let Starhub do the work for them.
3. They have a better mobile internet content now. Singtel for me have the better team here, it will benefit them.
4. Their strategy to get exclusive content and crush Starhub will likely fail.

The impact to bottom line will likely be:

1. Mio TV subscribers will be up. But it will not factor significant into Singtel’s bottom line as the revenue stream from Singapore is small.
2. Cost for content likely to come down.
3. This will be made up by increase cost to compete in other front. At the end of the day it might be more cost since they paid high for EPL. But they are deep enough to afford that.
4. Cross carrying means that Starhub is likely to buy their content. They will not charge low for this. It is still a win for them here.

Essentially, Singtel should stay quite stable. Read more…