Singapore: High price for World Cup viewing
March 17, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Singapore Telecom is tapping into fans enthusiasm for international football. For the upcoming June FIFA World Cup games from Brazil it has hiked prices by some 60 per cent and says it will charge viewers 105 Singapore Dollars (about $83) plus tax for viewing all 64 games. Four years ago it charged S$66 for the same access.
SingTel has the exclusive TV rights for the World Cup games.
However, subscribers who sign up for a two-year subscription to its IPTV-based service can access the games free of charge. The cheapest package on offer – and which includes access to the England Premier League – costs S$59.90 a month.
Rival operator StarHub is – not surprisingly – grumbling about the amount paid by SingTel and that the premium rights could have been shared without the bidding war that took place.
Under Singapore’s obligatory cross-carriage rules StarHub subscribers can also view the games, but only by paying the same S$105 that is being levied on the SingTel system.