Why SingTel Pay TV customers won't migrate to StarHub

Watching BPL possibly cheaper on mio TV.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) recently revealed that it forced SingTel to share its BPL (Barclays Premier League) content as the telco had made it “commercially unviable” for StarHub to separately purchase the rights, which OCBC noted, then resulted in the two telcos offering hefty “subsidies” to either lure subscribers to switch or retain subscribers.

But OCBC said the actual impact from this BPL ruling will likely be limited. "We do not expect the migration of Pay TV customers from SingTel to StarHub to be significant, given that it may still be cheaper for existing subscribers to watch BPL on the mio TV platform."

"We also suspect that the rebate that StarHub is offering to lure subscribers away from SingTel may hit its bottom-line, given that all BPL fees go to SingTel (StarHub only gets a token cross-carriage fee)," the research firm added.