Singapore

Singapore’s multichannel penetration now exceeds 67% reaching nearly 900,000 homes, with many opting for cable and IPTV services. StarHub is the leading provider, serving 545,000 households at the end of 2011 and offering more than 170 channels, 14 in high definition (as of June 2011). StarHub has kept subscriber numbers steady over the past year even with competition from SingTel’s IPTV service, mio TV, launched in 2007 and providing a largely a la carte line-up.

mio TV has 300,000 customers and offers 68 channels, of which 20 are on-demand. Content on mio TV covers a wide range of genres with movies aired as early as three months after cinematic release and TV series as early as 24 hours after their US debut. mio TV also signed an exclusive three year English Premier League deal in 2010 and broadcasts all their matches live.

The Singapore government introduced a cross-carriage scheme in 2010 requiring pay-TV operators to supply their “exclusive” content to certain other pay-TV operators. As the scheme is not yet fully in effect, it is still too early to assess its impact.

State-owned Mediacorp is the only terrestrial broadcaster, with seven national channels.

46% (2,213,436) of all people and 53% (863,804) of affluents (HH income SG$5,000+/month) watched multichannel TV monthly in 2011. Share of viewing in multichannel homes for multichannel channels was 53% for all people and 56% for affluents in 2011. Source Kantar

Synovate’s PAX survey data shows that, among upscale multichannel viewers, 90% of Singapore’s affluents watch regional channels every week and 94% each month. Source Synovate PAX Q3 2011

Kantar audience measurement captures daily TV viewing data via people meter for terrestrial and pay-TV channels in TV panel homes. Meanwhile, StarHub commissions Nielsen to manage virtual diary measurement providing data from a one-week diary of cable TV viewing against consumption and lifestyle information in Nielsen Media Index. The Media Index measures media habits, product, brand, consumption and lifestyle behaviour. Nielsen plan to measure return path data (RPD) later in 2012.