I wrote in the comments section here on Red Sports the other day that if SingTel mio TV doesn’t charge you around $70 to $80 a month for the English Premier League come next August 2010, they will lose their pants from having paid an estimated S$400 million for the broadcast rights for three years.
An article in Straits Times by an ex-StarHub executive seems to confirm the point.
“Though SingTel has promised not to charge more than the current price for the EPL, it is not clear how long it will be able to keep this promise… Ultimately the consumer will have to pay,” wrote Mabel Tan, a former assistant vice-president of StarHub. (PAY TV: Time to level playing field; p A23, Wednesday, October 7, 2009; The Straits Times)
Using the same set of numbers the writer took, I had earlier estimated that SingTel will have to charge about $45 just to cover the cost of the EPL rights fees. This assumes the analysts’ estimate of $400 million for the broadcast rights is correct and that SingTel gets 250,000 subscribers willing to pay for the EPL.
If you add in the extra fees they paid ESPN Star Sports to crossover from StarHub, as well as the broadcast rights fees for the UEFA Champions League and the Italian Serie A football, then throw in the need to make a profit, what are consumers looking? At least $70-80 a month?
SingTel may take the path of bundling the EPL with other not-so-popular content to ensure that as many people help them to pay for the cost of the broadcast rights. This will in turn outrage the non-sport consumers. SingTel currently has about 100,000 subscribers while StarHub has 530,000.
Singapore consumers already pay the second highest broadcast fees in the world after Hong Kong. We must be collectively mad to pay the rights holders, the Football Association Premier League (aka foreign talents), so much money for so little.
After all, just because they give you every last EPL game for free doesn’t mean anything. Who watches it all? You tell me people sit there to watch Burnley play Wolves? Or Hull take on Birmingham? I’d be surprised if the average subscriber watched more than 15 to 20 full 90-minute matches a year. It’s like overpriced buffets – there is only so much you can eat.
This is the free market system at its pernicious worst, sucking the Singapore sports industry of much needed funds for its own development, as well as taking people physically away from supporting Singaporean teams in games at stadiums all over the island.
The only person happy about this free market system is the foreign talent sitting in London counting every last dollar of the $400 million SingTel has reportedly agreed to pay.
That is money that eventually comes from somewhere.
Guess where?
Quick Facts about the EPL Broadcast Rights
The Football Association Premier League owns the television broadcast rights
StarHub has broadcast the EPL since 1997
StarHub paid an estimated $250 million in 2007 for the broadcast rights for three seasons (2007/08 – 2009/10)
ESPN paid an estimated $66.6 million for the broadcast rights for the 2004/05, 2005/06 seasons
SingTel lost to StarHub in 2007
250,000 to 350,000 estimated subscribers for the Sports Group Package on StarHub
Sports Group Package costs $25 per month (up from $8 in 2004)
CIMB investment research house estimates that SingTel paid about $400 million for the broadcast rights for three seasons (2010/11 – 1012/13) on mio TV
ESPN Star Sports will leave StarHub and join SingTel mio TV in May 2010
REDpoll
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Watching EPL is too expensive? Nobody forcing you to pay, what.
@addymuliady Starhub football has been paying 25 monthly for sports since last year.
If it is $80 then it is the worst investment ever for Singtel, no one will pay more than $10 for at most 8 matches a month on tv …