Minister: Use of broadcast funds needs 'delicate' balance

Minister: Use of broadcast funds needs 'delicate' balance

There are several reasons why you won't be able to catch more World Cup matches on the free-to-air channels.

Firstly, pay-TV operators will see it as a small incentive to acquire the matches and then screen them for free, said Mr Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information.

So why not tap public funds?

Mr Wong said in Parliament yesterday that they will tap the funds in the public kitty for just four key matches - the opening match, the semi-finals and the final. The matches will be available on free-to-air broadcaster MediaCorp's channels.

Yes, the Public Service Broadcast (PSB) fund has money - $812 million in total for financial years 2012 to 2016, said a Media Development Authority (MDA) spokesman.

But Mr Wong said the money was also needed to support a diverse range of programming, including support for minority channels and programmes that promote Singapore's culture and heritage.

He said MDA has to maintain a "delicate balance" to protect consumers' interest.

He added that making all the matches free for all may have "unintended consequences", like having MediaCorp, the free-to-air broadcaster, shouldering the cost burden.

"Doing so would then divert a significant portion of PSB monies," he said.

That fund has almost doubled from the last five-year block. Between 2007 and 2011, it was $470 million.

Mr Wong was responding to several Members of Parliament, including Dr Lee Bee Wah, who asked what more could be done to make football matches more accessible to Singaporeans.

Dr Lee, who is the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association, had cited how countries like Japan and Thailand will air all matches for free.

FOR SINGAPOREANS

"I hope that the minister will look into doing more for fellow Singaporeans who do not subscribe to those paid channels," Dr Lee said.

The high cost of watching the World Cup matches was also a concern for MPs Baey Yam Keng and Zaqy Mohamad. Under the cross-carriage rule, pay-TV operators SingTel and StarHub are offering the content at an early-bird price of $88 and a regular price of $105.

It is not known how much SingTel paid for the rights to screen the matches. For the last World Cup, it was reported that SingTel and StarHub forked out between $40 million and $100 million.

Mr Wong said that content owners like football's world governing body, Fifa, are price-setters who are "not obligated to sell their content at a price they do not agree with".

The cross-carriage rule was introduced in 2010 by Mr Lui Tuck Yew, then Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.

Under the rule, pay-TV providers must allow their exclusive programmes to be broadcast by their competitors, with the content unedited and offered at the same price.

So is the cross-carriage rule effective given the price of the content offered, asked Mr Zaqy.

Mr Wong said: "I would like to remind Members that (the) intent of cross-carriage is not to regulate content prices. So we should not judge its effectiveness in terms of whether content prices have dropped."

He said the cost of broadcast rights for the World Cup has been rising globally from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, as compared with the previous edition.

"Comparisons of subscription prices across different jurisdictions are also inherently fraught, as the operating circumstances in each country are different," he added.

"There are wide variations in terms of the size of the pay-TV market, as well as the potential advertising and sponsorship revenue available to broadcasters."

fjieying@sph.com.sg

This article was published on April 15 in The New Paper.

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