SingTel: Fans getting 'good value for money'

SingTel on Wednesday revealed that its World Cup 2014 package will cost $105 ($112.35 after GST), or free for those who sign a two-year contract for its English Premier League (EPL) broadcast.

The Gold Pack (EPL plus Champions League and other channels) costs $64.90 a month and Mio Stadium (EPL only) costs $59.90. SingTel country chief officer Allen Lew explains the details.

Why is the Package free for those who sign the two-year contract?

What we're telling fans is that if they contract for 24 months with us, which incidentally brings us to the end of our EPL commitment, we give them the World Cup free. We want to engender their loyalty and develop a longer-term relationship with them.

If your contract ends this December, we will move you from your current contract and to a new one that ends in June 2016. There will be no early termination charge for the existing contract.

Those with EPL contracts with us but use StarHub set-top boxes will also get it free if they sign a two-year contract with us.

There were problems with SingTel's broadcast, such as on the final day of the 2011-2012 EPL season. Can SingTel ensure this will not happen during the World Cup?

We take the reliability of our network very seriously. We've learnt from the lessons, we understand what caused the problems on May 13, 2012. The fact that I remember it very well shows you the sort of rigour we went through to understand that.

We have made all the remedies necessary in our network, and we will ensure that people watching the World Cup won't have the problem customers had the last time.

SingTel will telecast matches on mobile devices as well. Can its network handle the added load?

The mobile network is of a slightly different platform than for television, which uses a managed platform specifically for TV. The mobile will be drawing off the Wi-Fi signal and is off a platform called Over The Top (OTT) that goes through the public Internet.

The public Internet has a lot of capacity, and obviously because we have made a commitment, we will make sure we groom the network.

The World Cup package cost $10.50 in 2006. but In under 10 years, it has increased tenfold to $105. Why?

The most important driver of this is - and as reported in the international press - the increasing fees of live sports rights. If you look at events that are apart by two to four years, the fees have reportedly gone up by 35 per cent.

If you want to take a benchmark of this World Cup versus the last time there was a similar event, it would be Euro 2012. The price per match in Euro 2012 came up to about $2.60. This time it will be about $1.70.

More importantly, we try to add more value than just giving a live broadcast.

shamiro@sph.com.sg

The main focus is football fans, and with our additional features, we believe $105 represents good value for money.

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