Here's SingTel's battle plan against StarHub's BPL rebate offer

Plot thickens in market share war.

CIMB believes SingTel will intensify its efforts to gain pay TV market share by bundling services more aggressively.  This is to counter the S$30/mth  rebate offered by Starhub for customers cross-carrying the Barclays Premier League broadcast from SingTel. The rebate will dampen SingTel’s ability to gain market share and monetise its investment in the BPL, says CIMB.

Here's more from CIMB:

We think SingTel will bundle its services more aggressively in an effort to gain pay TV market share. This is to counter the S$30/mth rebate offered by Starhub for customers cross-carrying the BPL broadcast from SingTel.

SingTel has raised the price of its BPL-only channels from S$34.90 to S$59.90 after it was mandated to cross-carry the BPL to Starhub’s subscribers who request for it. It charges S$64.90 for BPL and up to 85 other channels.

This is to discourage non-SingTel customers from subscribing for the BPL via cross-carriage. But Starhub has countered this by offering a S$30/mth rebate (for up to a maximum of S$600) for users who cross carry the BPL on its network.

We think the rebate will dampen SingTel’s ability to monetise the coveted BPL which we believe it paid a large premium for, over the last three seasons. More importantly, the rebate and the Minister’s direction to SingTel to cross-carry the broadcast dampen SingTel’s ability to garner more subscriber market share.