MEDIA EXCLUSIVITY AGREEMENTS: MINISTER SAYS NO TO

UNCLAS SINGAPORE 001407 SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR FOR AUSTR BWEISEL AND DBELL COMMERCE FOR JBAKER SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECPS EINT ECON ETRD EINV SN SUBJECT: MEDIA EXCLUSIVITY AGREEMENTS: MINISTER SAYS NO TO ADDITIONAL REGULATION REF: A) 2006 SINGAPORE 1484 B) 2006 SINGAPORE 1205 ¶1. (U) In a move applauded by U.S. industry, Singapore's Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) announced on July 27 that he had rejected SingTel's appeal to further regulate exclusive carriage agreements between media content/channel providers and Singapore's Pay-TV operator, StarHub Cable Vision. Echoing the Media Development Authority's (MDA's) May 2006 decision that had triggered the appeal, MICA argued that "exclusive agreements per se do not substantially foreclose potential entrants' access to key content for the Pay- TV market in Singapore." ¶2. (SBU) As part of its appeal, SingTel had asked that StarHub be required to provide wholesale access to exclusive key content. SingTel introduced its VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Pay-TV services earlier this year to compete with StarHub's previous monopoly in the domestic Pay-TV market. In addition to pressure on the Singapore government from U.S. content providers and the USG to not further regulate exclusive carriage agreements, USTR raised this issue during the second annual review of our bilateral Free Trade Agreement in March 2006 as part of our concerns about the lack of transparency in Singapore's rule-making process (reftels). ¶3. (U) MICA's press release on its decision may be viewed at http://www.mica.gov.sg. HERBOLD