Familee Profiteering from Basic Services

Jun 26, 2010

Another pricing penalty for pay TV sports fans

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WHILE football fans may have felt that SingTel and StarHub charged exorbitantly for screening the current World Cup matches, there is yet another sports package that bears scrutiny.
This is the new price of an ESPN sports package resulting from ESPN StarSports' switch from StarHub to SingTel's mio TV, next month.
I was shocked to learn that the ESPN package on mio TV costs $24.61, which is the same price viewers pay for the English Premier League (EPL) package; the twin package for ESPN and the EPL is $26.75.
The pricing is baffling, especially when sports fans are told that the major cost for SingTel was the acquisition of broadcasting rights for the EPL. If this is so, why should the ESPN package cost as much as the EPL?
Such pricing also means that ESPN subscribers who are not EPL fans are effectively subsidising the English Premiership payees.
The relevant authorities should examine mio TV's pricing which, on the face of it, seems unfair.
Worse still, mio TV is still unavailable where I live and SingTel will say only that it will be available in July.
Will I be able to catch Formula One's British Grand Prix live from July 10 to 12? No one at SingTel is prepared to guarantee that I will, and I am having serious doubts that I will.
If such is the case, the relevant authorities should intercede and let StarHub continue broadcasting ESPN StarSports until SingTel meets its 100 per cent commitment to wire up Singapore completely.
Furthermore, I was told by SingTel staff that when I am finally mio TV enabled, I must have one telephone line with one modem per set-top box.
This sounds ridiculous as my house has a local area network (LAN) wired up. Why can't mio TV work with one telephone line with a central modem connected to multiple set-top boxes via the LAN?
Is it just another opportunity to charge the customer more? There is absolutely no incentive for me to increase the number of set-top boxes.
Keith Heah

Jun 26, 2010

The big switch

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'Are increased charges and ineffectual responses desired outcomes in bulking up competition?'
MR JEFFREY HENG: 'I have been a StarHub subscriber since its inception, but had to apply for mio TV because SingTel won the broadcast rights to the English Premiership and ESPN sports packages. I can accept that. What is unacceptable is having to apply for a SingTel line, when StarHub provided one free for me. And if I want another mio TV set-top box, I have to apply for a second line. If SingTel's technology is of the low-grade variety, subscribers who must switch telcos to continue enjoying their favourite shows should not be penalised. Worse still, there is a 10-day period if I want to port over my telephone line. Want it sooner? Pay a premium, a SingTel staff member told me. So, while I used to pay only $25 per month to enjoy my favourite sports shows, I must now pay more than $55. I must also pay home phone charges by the minute which StarHub used to give free. Finally, I must pay $110 for installation and a connection fee although I have the SingTel jacks already built in. The relevant authorities should enlighten me as to whether increased charges and ineffectual responses to customer dissatisfaction are desired outcomes in bulking up competition among the telcos?'

Worse than this Bro, familee profit and fail to provide a proper service. I switch to Mio home and i have been experiencing disconnection daily; and everytime i have to use my handphone to call them up to check the connections for me.

And this MIO crap has been around for half a decade?

I regretted when I sign up for the mio thingy. Many occurance of distruption! Waste my money.

cockcansing said:

I regretted when I sign up for the mio thingy. Many occurance of distruption! Waste my money.

Click to expand...

Miow.... Starf*ck.... all cmi one.

Get a satellite dish and solve all your problems. Nowadays these dishes are so small and compact they are hardly noticeable by outsiders passing by your home.

I am using the latest astro satellite dish which is only 8 inches across the diameter but damn power! ....... Clear reception from countless channels all over the world. :p

Perhaps it's time to ask my doggies to sniff around and fish for some dishes.
No matter how small, nothing escapes my eyes.