New Pay-TV Service Launches in Singapore

SINGAPORE, July 20: Singapore Telecommunications has
launched mio TV, a new pay-TV service featuring 24 linear channels, including
new offerings from VOOM and the BBC, and video on demand content such as a host
of feature films from Sony Pictures Television International.

“The next generation of television watching has arrived,”
said Allen Lew, the Singapore CEO at SingTel. “Customers have been calling for
choice and flexibility in the pay-TV market and now they have it.”

The platform, which is taking on established cable player
StarHub, will feature on-demand access to blockbuster movies from major
Hollywood movie studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth
Century Fox and Disney. Customers can search for content by genre, by title or
by actor’s name. SingTel has inked an output deal with Sony Pictures Television
International that brings viewers feature films at the same time as the DVD
release.

In terms of HD content, the platform offers from VOOM HD
Networks: Equator HD, a documentary channel about the people, places and
cultures of the world with a special focus on protecting the environment; SLING
HD, a teen oriented co-venture of VOOM HD and Singaporean media company Mega
Media, with content encompassing computer games, virtual reality and extreme
sports; WorldSport HD, a video-on-demand service featuring sports documentaries
and select arena sporting events from around the world; and VOOM HD, a broad
slate of original programming from categories such as adventure travel,
fashion, luxury lifestyle, art and music.

In addition to MediaCorp's suite of free-to-air channels
(Channels 5, 8, U, Channel Newsasia, Suria and Central), its HD5 will also be
available on mio TV. This will be the first free-to-air HD channel in
Singapore.

BBC Global Channels will launch three new branded
channels—BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies—on mio TV. This
marks the first time that BBC Knowledge and the BBC Lifestyle have appeared
anywhere in the world, and only the second time that the BBC’s children’s
channel CBeebies has been available to international audiences. CBeebies
launched in India earlier this year. BBC Knowledge showcases the best of the
BBC’s award winning factual and documentary programming, with a focus on the
world, the past, business, science and technology, and people. BBC Lifestyle
covers programming from categories such as food, fashion and beauty, home and
design, parenting, personal development and health. CBeebies aims to offer
preschoolers an interactive, entertaining and educational experience.

Also available will be the Mei Ah TV channel, Singapore’s
first Cantonese movie channel. Selected titles will premiere simultaneously on
mio TV and on Hong Kong cinema screens. The platform’s other channel offerings
include Sony Entertainment Television, an English-language network targeting
women; Luli for toddlers, KBS World from Korea, India’s Zee Channel and ETTV
Asia News from Taiwan.

The platform offers an a la carte price plan as opposed to
basic tier subscription packages. Channels are priced at between S$4.28 and
S$12.85 per month. Mio TV will also offer customers a personal video recorder,
and the mio TV website allows subscribers to program their recordings when they
are not at home. An upcoming service will enable them to do it via their mobile
phones.