StarHub TV


StarHub TV is a pay television service provided by StarHub in Singapore. It has been a subsidiary of StarHub Limited since StarHub acquired Singapore Cable Vision in 2001, and was the sole pay-TV operator in the country until 2007 when mio TV, an IPTV service from its competitor, Singtel, was launched.
The company offers IPTV services via the optical fibre network. It also provides this service via a wireless network, the Digital Terrestrial Television system.

Company history

Prior attempts at starting cable television in Singapore

The history of cable TV in Singapore began on 25 January 1978, when a spokesman of the Ministry of Culture announced that two companies were bidding for a license to provide cable services for 30 hotels. The two companies interested were Rediffusion Singapore and Australian company Stratton Enterprises. Commercial advertising was forbidden from the services to be provided, and that operators would have to buy their programmes for screening. The area with the most requests for a cable service was Orchard Road. The cable network was to be built by Telecoms using its existing coaxial cable network. For this end, Telecoms would invest S$1 billion over a period of five years; the roadmap included the installation of the skeleton cable network in 1980/81. In order for the network to be built, Telecoms started conducting studies in countries where cable television was more advanced.
In December 1978, hotels weren't convinced of the idea of a cable television network for their guests, with some hotels being unaware of how such a system worked, as well as general disinterest and high installation costs. Telecoms at the same time announced a survey whose results would lead to the introduction of a cable television service.
In April 1979, Telecoms announced the implementation of its cable network in Orchard Road by 1981, and among the services offered was cable television. The cable network would generate its signals from Telecoms' Comcentre at Exeter Road to cover all hotels in the area, private housing estates and some adjacent estates from the Housing Development Board. The area was selected due to the cost of the cables, meaning that they were installed close to Comcentre, and its capability of having a high potential zone with interested customers in the hotel and household sectors. It would provide both of RTS's channels as well as subscription movie offerings and programmes catering tourists and the industry. There was a plan to provide two or three channels, with one for hotels and another for educational purposes. Results of the preliminary study in August have shown that viewers had interest in the upcoming cable service, which implied that Telecoms had plans to introduce its cable service by 1981 or 1982, granted that subscribers would wire if the fees were "reasonable". Cable television would also have laxer levels of censorship than RTS, as well as programmes that RTS wasn't interested in showing. RTS was unlikely to produce programmes for the cable network. Commercial advertising was limited to between programmes, which caused a problem to the viability of such a service, as subscriptions would be higher than S$20. All of the three private bids for cable television by then were rejected by the government. Telecoms later announced that it would delay the project due to lack of viability.

Singapore Cable Vision's early years

In 1991, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation was interested in setting up a cable network. In January 1991, a US company studied the feasibility of a cable service in Singapore, showing its interest over the high density of television set ownership. Another company, a subsidiary of the Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation, set up a preliminary survey to study the potential cable market in the country, and in the region by May. After the study, which was set to last a year, the government would greenlight the license. On 11 July 1991, the then Singapore Cable Vision was licensed to establish a nationwide broadband cable network to provide pay-TV services. SCV also had the unprecedented responsibility of delivering terrestrial free-to-air channels to Singapore households via its cable points, free-of-charge to viewers. In October, with the Asian launch of BBC World Service Television, coinciding with Princess Anne's visit to Singapore, SBC was still in the negotiating phase to carry its contents over the planned news channel. A third channel, a variety channel in the Mandarin language, was announced in late January, favoured over a proposed English-language variety channel after conducting research. For the feasibility of a cable network, a Hong Kong consultant was appointed, ahead of the launch of the UHF service.
The first of the three channels, NewsVision, came on air on 2 April 1992. Two further channels, VarietyVision and MovieVision, were to be launched on June 1. In December 1991, NewsVision won the rights to carry CNN International programming over BBC World Service Television's output. SBC and SCV were willing to find foreign partners.
Initially, services were delivered over scrambled UHF signals, with the package of three channels being priced in at up to $50, depending on the number of channels the subscriber wanted, with prices comparable to those offered by Sky in New Zealand and Thai Sky TV in Thailand, both of which also offered three channels.
In the setup of the network of channels, SCV announced that the new channels would carry commercials. VarietyVision was set to carry four minutes of advertising per hour, NewsVision, eight minutes per hour and MovieVision was exempt. Ad rates were lower than the ones carried out by SBC's channels and half of the advertising time on NewsVision was shared between local ad slots and those from the relays of CNN International. A $2 million contract with McCann Erickson for advertising was signed. SCV set up an initial target of 30,000 subscribers.
Within its first week, SCV claimed to have had an "overwhelming response", according to a print ad from its technological suppliers, Jerrold and General Instrument. By month's end, 90% of Singaporean hotel guests now had interest in the service.
SCV launched MovieVision and VarietyVision on 13 May 1992, this time with the goal of achieving 4,500 subscribers by the end of June. MovieVision initially broadcast 12 hours a day, offering 30 movies per month, with the aim of increasing its daily schedule to 18 hours a day in January 1993. VarietyVision, broadcasting entirely in Chinese, carried programming from the Chinese world 18 hours a day Sundays to Fridays and 24 hours a day on Saturdays.
Goldtron announced in June 1992 that it won a five-year technological contract for SCV. Its subsidiary Dynamar would supply the TOCOM decoders for its subscribers.
MovieVision, the HBO relayer, started 24-hour broadcasts in April 1994.

Preparing a cable network

In December 1993, Information and the Arts Minister Brigadier-General George Yeo announced that Singapore would expect "a dozen" cable channels by 1995, followed by "20 to 30" channels by 1998. By the end of the second phase, all HDB households would be connected to the service. Channels for the Japanese, German and French communities were also on the cards. SCV would remain a monopoly in the subscription television sector, with a push for competition after a few years, and would use Singapore Telecom's cable network to deliver its content. After a tour of major US media conglomerates in April and May 1994, Yeo announced that the cable network would be running "in two years". As of June, the UHF service was receivable in almost 4% of Singaporean households and 85% of hotel rooms. 20% of home subscribers had a subscription to two of the three channels and 60% subscribed to all three. The reach in households made it accessible to over 110,000 viewers. The total cost of the project was $500 million. The shareholder structure was changed in readiness for the new network, with Singapore International Media holding 31%, Continental Cablevision 25%, Singapore Technologies 24% and SPH 20%. SBC dropped out of SCV because its successors were going to be SIM subsidiaries. The NTUC would also act as a channel provider.
SCV announced in September 1994 that it would begin transmitting the three Malaysian terrestrial networks TV1, TV2 and TV3 - as part of its network in 1995, ending Singapore's arms-length stance for the latter since its launch. There were also plans for a "City TV" community channel and interactive services at the long-term. All of its offerings, including the three Malaysian channels, were subject to negotiations and terms of acceptance by the Singapore Broadcasting Authority.
Construction work for the cable network started in October 1994 in Tampines and hoped to offer a video-on-demand service "at some time in the future", a pay-per-view service "within three years", as well as other interactive services such as shopping from home and house calls from repairmen.
Phase one of the installation of the cable network in Tampines was scheduled to finish in June 1995, it would take three-and-a-half to four years for the entire island to be connected. Tampines was selected due to "technical and commercial considerations". The phase alone cost $25 million.
The first programmer to win a contract for a slot on SCV's cable network was Robert Chua's China Entertainment Television in February 1995, which promised a formula of "no sex, no violence and no news". The contract was formalised in early May. Work on the installation of the cables was underway in March, by then they had signed a contract with Asia Business News. Star TV signed up in mid-late March providing Star World, the Star Chinese Channel and Channel V, as well as the possibility of adding its movie channels. ESPN was signed in late March, at a time when it set up a regional facility in Singapore. Negotiations with The Walt Disney Company were underway, with the opening at the same time of its uplink facilities in Singapore, ahead of the launch of the channel in Taiwan.
SCV also had plans to become a fixed telecommunications operator from April 2002, when the government would lift telecommunications monopolies. In April, 50,000 General Instruments decoders were ordered, cable decoders bought in other countries were incompatible with SCV broadcasts. The decoders also had an authorisation key where parents would select age-appropriate programmes and monitor time spent by children watching television. A headend worth S$850,000 was built in Ayer Rajah, with the capability of receiving up to 45 satellite channels and the TCS channels, the latter of which connected via fibre to Bukit Batok.
Key agreements were signed in May 1995: the Hong Kong-Taiwanese TVB Super Channel, which had just started cable broadcasts in Manila, was at an advanced stage; the thirteenth channel to be added was CCTV-4, which benefitted Chinese workers and businessmen; on 18 May 1995, an agreement with the Tamil broadcaster Golden Eagle Communications to carry its channel, Golden Eagle, launched in India in February, over the cable network upon its launch. The Asian version of the Discovery Channel, still doing playout from Hong Kong at the time, was also announced. On 23 May, an agreement with Turner enabled TNT & Cartoon Network and CNN International to be added; alongside the announcement, at a banquet party held by SCV that evening, it was announced that after Tampines, the areas of Pasir Ris and Choa Chu Kang were the next to receive the service, and that installation would be done by Christmas. By then, 100,000 households were able to receive SCV. Negotiations with the Sega Channel were also underway.
At the end of May, SCV had signed an agreement with Worldnet on 1 June with MTV, providing two channels in Mandarin and English, and on 6 June, with Australia Television International, which up until that point only had its news bulletin relayed on NewsVision. All of the channels available were carefully monitored and met the requirements set by the SBA, who reiterated that cable TV had the same censorship standards as free-to-air channels. Moreover, a 14-minute hourly advertising limit was placed on all channels carried on the service. Further SBA compliances included the TCS and TV12 channels at the top of the offer and that every channel should have SBA approval. The first subscribers were wired to the service on 14 June; subscriptions were first accepted on 12 June.