Published October 7, 2008

SingTel's mio TV falls far short

By LEE U-WEN
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THINGS are certainly not going according to plan as far as SingTel's month-old video-on-demand service is concerned.

The telco made headlines in July when it announced a tie-up with Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros, allowing its mio TV platform to telecast more than 50 top-rated American TV shows via its Season Pass service within 24 hours of them being aired in the US.

The news was hailed by fans of popular shows such as Ugly Betty and Prison Break, as it meant that they no longer had to wait months for their favourite shows to be screened on free-to-air TV or on the other pay-TV broadcaster, StarHub.

Unfulfilled promise

mio TV's Season Pass allows TV junkies to pay an average of $2.68 on a per-season basis. This is still generally less than it would cost to get a DVD box set of the show, which is released only months after the show has ended its TV broadcast.

Then came the first hiccup: Last month, viewers found out they had to wait six days after the US telecast until they could catch the first episode of the latest seasons of hit drama Prison Break and teen series One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl.

And last Sunday, it was reported that mio TV subscribers would have to wait six months before being able to catch the newest seasons of arguably two of the most popular shows right now, Desperate Housewives and supernatural drama Ghost Whisperer.

This came after it was revealed that MediaCorp TV owns the rights to the latest seasons for both shows and has no intention of screening them yet because the previous seasons are still being broadcast. It's a setback for SingTel, as well as a blow for fans who signed up for mio TV in the hope of being able to watch these shows almost immediately after the people in America.

Among the questions that need to be asked are: Was SingTel aware that MediaCorp was bidding for the rights to Desperate Housewives and Ghost Whisperer?

And what is being done, if anything, to compensate viewers for the delay, seeing as how it seems that not all the initial promises have been fulfilled?

After all, there was plenty of resting on the success of SingTel's video-on-demand service - it marked a concerted effort by the telco to gain more subscribers to mio TV, which was launched 15 months ago.

At the last count, mio TV has about 50 channels and 45,000 subscribers.

Rival StarHub, on the other hand, has more than 150 channels and 508,000 subscribers on board. StarHub, too, has its own on-demand service for four shows and has said that it will honour its 24-hour promise.

Incentives needed

Granted, these are still early days for mio TV, but it can ill-afford any more disappointments.

One must not forget that it's so easy nowadays to download the latest episodes of any TV series or movie from the Internet for free, albeit illegally, and often within hours of them being televised in the US.

As things stand, there has to be more incentive for viewers, especially in these tougher economic times, to part with their hard-earned dollars for a pay-TV service, especially when they can get their fix elsewhere for free.