Singapore , 11 June 2007 - StarHub will revise its pay-TV prices, and the new rates will take effect in one month's time, on 11 July 2007.
StarHub's rate adjustment will be introduced through a $4 (before GST) increase in its Basic Group and Value Pack subscription fees.
Mr Thomas Ee, StarHub's Senior Vice President of Cable, Fixed & IP Services, explained that this rate adjustment is a natural result of ongoing increases in prices of pay-TV content. "Most pay-TV operators around the world increase prices periodically, and StarHub has not done so despite a steady rise in costs over the years," said Mr Ee. "Aside from the sports package increase in November 2004, we have avoided any price increase in our pay-TV packages and have absorbed the increase in content costs ourselves, without passing it to subscribers. It is impossible to continue absorbing the costs indefinitely, so we have no choice but to implement this rate adjustment at this time. In fact, this will be the first time StarHub is increasing its pricing for basic pay-TV subscription fees since 1995."
StarHub has always focused on giving customers the best value for their money and providing high quality content at affordable prices. To cite an example, StarHub's cable TV basic subscription fee was actually lowered from $32.95 (before GST) to $20 (before GST) six years ago. In June 2001, StarHub provided consumers with more choice by unbundling the former large Basic Tier into the Basic Groups of different content genres that are offered today.
The pay-TV operator had also added many new channels over the years and some of these additions were made available to customers without any increase in price. In the past three and a half years alone, 20 new channels were added without additional charges, despite high content costs that are constantly rising over the years. Examples of channels added to the Basic Groups at no additional charge in recent years included CCTV-9, Discovery Travel & Living and STAR CHINESE CHANNEL. In addition, new channels such as Channel [V] Mainland China, Channel [V] Taiwan, TTV World, TVB Xing He Channel were also added to the Chinese Plus II group, while Boomerang, Channel [V] International, CNN Headline News, FOXCRIME, FX, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WILD and Sky News were added to the Family Plus group without a price increase to customers. From 15 June 2007, many customers will enjoy two more additions when The History Channel and Crime & Investigation Network are introduced to the Education Basic Group and Family Plus respectively.
For the most costly element - sports content, StarHub will also be implementing new rates for its sports offerings. However, the new rate for sports will not take effect until later in the year. The new monthly sports subscription fee will be $25 (before GST) and is expected to take effect from October this year. In the meantime, sports fans can continue to enjoy their favourite sports content at the existing Sports Group subscription fee of $15 (before GST). More details of StarHub's sports offerings, as well as promotional and discount packages for sports content, will be made available in the near future.
StarHub presently offers 103 channels (including seven Free-to-Air channels), in addition to 40 Demand TV channels, on its digital platform.
