StarHub shrinks its entertainment bundles from 50 to seven

Singapore

STARHUB has overhauled its entertainment offering to seven entertainment bundles from 50 previously, the telco said on Monday.

The new "passes" will consist of the English Entertainment Pass, Movies Pass, Asian Entertainment Pass, Malay Entertainment Pass, Indian Entertainment Pass, Filipino Entertainment Pass and Sports Pass. These passes can also be switched around at any time, with no limit on the number of switches, on the telco's online portal for customers.

To enjoy the new entertainment passes, customers need to be subscribers of StarHub's fibre broadband services, while customers subscribed to another company's broadband would have to pay S$15 extra to access the pay-TV service, the telco said in response to queries from The Business Times.

Customers already subscribing to its broadband service will be able to sign up for one pass at S$29.90 a month with a 24-month contract or opt for a no-contract option. They can also add more passes according to their needs.

Entertainment pass subscribers will also be able to gain complimentary access to StarHub partner apps such as HBO GO for Movies Pass subscribers and BBC Player for English Entertainment Pass subscribers.

StarHub has also enhanced its multi-screen viewing experience under the new passes, allowing all customers to receive its StarHub TV Go value-added service without any additional charge. All StarHub Mobile postpaid customers will also be able to stream unlimited content on StarHub Go without incurring any local data charges.

StarHub shares closed at S$1.50 on Monday, up one cent.

Jochen Krauss, managing partner at Simon Kucher & Partners, said StarHub's move away from individual bundling to one which addresses more targeted segments may help lower the threshold for subscriptions in a space seen as expensive by on-demand customers.

Fitch Solutions analyst Kenny Liew reckoned this may entice first-time customers who may be overwhelmed by how complicated and rigid former bundles were. Pay-TV is also a very low margin business, given how expensive acquiring content has become.

Thus, low-value subscribers who consume content from all seven packages but buy only one may pose a problem. It is difficult for StarHub to scale up given the small size of the Singapore market, Mr Liew added.

To differentiate itself, StarHub needs to focus on niches not already addressed by over-the-top competitors, said Andrew Milroy, head of advisory services, Asia-Pacific, at Ovum. This includes live sports, local language Asian content, news content and its partnerships with media companies like the BBC.