Pay-TV needs more than live sports to survive

Annabeth Leow

Published Mon, Oct 5, 2020 · 09:50 PM

SINGAPORE'S pay-television operators have been struggling as viewers shift to over-the-top (OTT) video services such as Netflix and Amazon.

Meanwhile, the live sports events that the pay-TV players have been banking on for years are no longer the sure fire draw they used to be.

As at end-March 2020, StarHub had 327,000 pay-TV subscribers while Singtel had 382,000. This was down from 528,000 and 423,000, respectively, at end-March 2016.

StarHub's pay-TV revenue was S$248 million in 2019, lower by 34.4 per cent from S$378 million in 2016. Singtel, which has a March 31 financial year-end, reported Singtel TV revenue of S$218 million in FY2020 - down by 6 per cent from S$232 million in FY2016.

Other countries where pay-TV is retreating include the United States - with penetration tipped to plunge by 17 percentage points to 48 per cent from 2019 to 2025 - and South Korea, where it could slide by four points to 160 per cent, according to industry research unit GSMA Intellig…