Singapore Nixes Exclusive Pay-TV Content Deals

SINGAPORE: The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has announced new regulations that require pay-TV platforms to make their exclusive content available on rival systems.

The Public Interest Obligation calls for mandatory cross carriage of exclusive content in the pay-TV market. The changes to the Media Market Conduct Code (MMCC 2010), which only apply to any new or renewed programming after today, were introduced to the Singapore Parliament by Lui Tuck Yew, the acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA).

Explaining the new rules, the regulatory authority said that almost all content in the pay-TV market in Singapore is acquired on an exclusive basis, resulting in a "high degree of content fragmentation, as well as higher content acquisition costs." With the changes, consumers will no longer require multiple set-top boxes or have to switch platforms to access exclusive content. The MDA says this will "facilitate greater consumer access to pay-TV content, and shift the focus of competition in the market from an exclusivity-centric strategy to other aspects such as service differentiation and competitive packaging and pricing."

The regulatory authority expects that exclusive content acquired or renewed from today will be made available on a cross-carriage basis by September 1. Exempt from the regulations has been Singapore pay-TV’s biggest story of the year—English Premier League football moving from established cable platform Starhub to upstart IPTV service mioTV.

The MDA has also ruled that coverage of "events of national significance," previously available only to free-to-air TV and radio licensees, can be made available to other channels as directed by MDA. Plus, "dominant media players" most provide all media licensees the ability to purchase ad time to promote their services "on reasonable and non-discriminatory prices, terms and conditions."