Starhub has announced an expected price increase, with a $4 price increase in their basic group and value pack, and a $10 increase in their sports package. Much expected, after Starhub paid S$250 million for 3 seasons of the rights to the English Premier League.

I’ve gone from the Starhub sports package being free, packaged in their basic tier, all the way to when their introductory Sports package of $8 and subsequently $15 in a decade.

I wrote a letter in the new paper last year with regards to live EPL rights, after the EU competition law removed the exclusive rights by Sky Sports.

The main response by their Corporate Communications executive Huang Shu Yin was this “We would like to assure our customers that StarHub is constantly mindful of the need to weigh the value of what we offer, and provide an attractive package of programmes at a price that will be reasonable to loyal customers.”

Loyal is never a word when it comes to maximizing profits for a company with a monopoly of an entire country’s pay television. Furthermore, the Singapore market is too small to see any competitors being able to take on Starhub.

The suggestion that Starhub should provide more Italian and other league football coverage is non-forthcoming, with Italian clubs negotiating their own individual exclusive deals. (The likes of Catania and Torino did a cheap collective deal, which allowed Starhub to purchase rights to the group’s home games) Going for the rights of the prominent Italian clubs would certainly cost a bomb, all thanks to AC Milan’s Silvio Berlusconi great law when he was prime minister that Italian clubs should do individual sale of their rights.

The price hike is inevitable (otherwise where are they gona get their S$250 million back from?), but my plea is that there should be a freeze on price hikes for the next 3 years. When they do their maths, and realized their price increase has left them down on numbers, they will be raising prices even more to make up for the shortfall. Ultimately, the game cannot survive without the fans. (as many EPL clubs have realized and have all frozen ticket price hikes for next season)

Related:

• Starhub press release
• TNP Postman