A facebook group has surfaced in the past week in retaliation to the exhorbitant charges to view World Cup 2010 in Singapore.
The facebok page created by John Chua has so far generated 18,594 members over the past week rallying support to boycott both Singtel and Starhub’s World Cup telecast.
In the facebook group, Singtel and Starhub are charging a high price of S$70.62 for early bird sign up (before 1 Jun) and S$94.16 (after 1 Jun). That doesn’t include the basic subscription of the basic groups and HD box rental. The price is ~5 times more than what subscribers paid for back in 2006. It makes Singapore one of the last and most expensive country to watch the World Cup via PAY TV.
Coffee shops or pubs are also considering whether they will screen the telecasts. According to SingTel and StarHub’s pricing rates for commercial establishments like coffee shops, it costs $2,888 for the first TV set (screen size under 50 inches) and $1,888 for each subsequent set to show the 2010 World Cup. To substain the costs, coffee shop owners will probably raise their coffee from 80 cents to a dollar and 10 cents or more.
Subscribers now resort to old school technique, the RF antenna to tune in Indonesia’s RCTI or Malaysia’s RTM1 for their soccer fix as both neighbouring countries are screen at least half of the matches free to air. The younger ones wil resort to using P2P TV to watch it online.
Will the telcos throttle the p2p traffic and scramble the channels (via the starhub socket), that remains to be seen.
Will you subscribe ? Comment here.
Boycott those expensive plans, find a public place to watch the match for free, , , lets revive the kampung spirit
yea, we damn well can afford $70 just like we can afford a $1 cup of coffee
But why is the price increasd for singapore only? i will pay $70 for a plate of chicken rice if it can be justififed and every stall is the same, but why singapore only?
greed? explotation?
then no thanks, i rather miss the chicken rice and get a plate of noodles
It is $70 before basic subscription and rental of equipment; and you can’t cancel the subscription or you have to pay the penalty
What is S$70?
S$70 is super reasonable. Singtel and Starhub have negotiated the best deal for you else you have nothing to watch. How much does it cost for you to fly to South Africa? S$70 is really peanut if the HDTV elephant is sitting comfortably in your home now.
Do consider to subscribe after 30 May and pay only S$94 to lift Singapore economy for double digit growth this year.
For Singapore and for yourself, enjoy the FIFA world cup in June.