StarHub plans new one-north facility

SINGAPORE - Shocked by a referee's decision in a match you are watching, you tweet your views to friends on social media. The commentator picks up on these chats and works them into the live commentary during half-time.

This is the future of television production which StarHub is planning at its new one-north facility in Buona Vista.

Dubbed MediaHub, the facility will bring under one roof all the pieces the telco and pay-TV operator needs to push the envelope in its traditional telecommunication and media business. StarHub declined to reveal how much it is pumping into the facility.

To be completed by the first quarter of 2016, the six-storey building will include a state-of- the-art TV production studio and a new social media analytics lab.

At the ground-breaking event Friday, StarHub chief executive Tan Tong Hai declared that the MediaHub, to be spread over 8,590 sq m of land, will be the "future of media convergence".

Explaining how the next stage of media evolution lies in channelling viewer feedback from social media into live TV production, he said: "The old way of TV broadcasting cannot last long.

"Is the referee being unfair? Is it really an offside? If the commentator mentions fans' reactions at half-time, viewers will be impressed and he will definitely strike a chord with them."

Another key push will be into analytics, which means tracking customer behaviour across TV, mobile and broadband, and using the information to adapt StarHub's services to what people want. For instance, it can provide a customer who watches its Cinema World pay-TV channel, which offers more artistic fare, with information about a ballet performance at the Esplanade.

Mr Tan said that the diversity of its platforms will provide deeper insight into the different facets of a customer, giving the telco a leg up on the online analytics of Google, for instance, which is mainly an online company.

This will be augmented by user billing data such as age, gender and NRIC number. The location of mobile subscribers is also part of the information trove that telcos have.

While StarHub does not sell the information, it shares anonymous versions of the data with organisations like the Orchard Road Business Association to help retailers understand crowd location and the demographics of visitors to Orchard Road.

MediaHub will also be used as a fourth major node in StarHub's core mobile, cable TV and broadband and terrestrial submarine cable networks, serving customers in the western part of island.

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