10/03/2009

Stupidity or good business sense?

The football fans are fuming at the recent successful bid by Singtel to host the EPL. They have to switch programme provider and inconvenience and cost immediately become an issue. It was reported that Singtel paid a bomb of $400m for the rights, more than Starhub's $212m. The fear of having to pay more by the consumers is justified. Singtel is not going to do charity and will have to recover the cost from somewhere, sometime. But the fear may be unfounded. Singtel said that the aggressive bid was done with the 'intent to hold retail prices stable'. So the consumers need not fear. They should cut out this phrase from the newspaper and paste it over their TV screen and when the time comes to pay more, they can bring this up to Singtel. But of course by then the circumstances will have changed and all the additional costs could be justified by many other reasons. Having said that, consumers and the public should praise Singtel for its successful bid and for its well meaning intent to keep cost stable. OK, I confess that I am not sure what is the definition of the word 'stable'. Just like the word affordable, it can mean anything to anyone. All things will come to a happy ending, stupidity or clever business strategy, someone will have to pay for it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

pay and pay

Anonymous said...

'Someone has to pay for it'.

Just a little modification to the Above Statement. It should be 'many(consumers)' will have to pay for it.

'Stable' could means the good was paid for at a very high price and therefore consumers(not forced to buy) will have to pay a fixed and stable(non bargainable, non negotiable, invariable) price for it, hence stable.

Question is how justifiable is the high cost that the people have to pay for the services. It was reported that Adm Lui is going to look into the unhappiness. The Consumer Association is still mum about it and i wonder do we need one in the first place.

patriot

Anonymous said...

Adm Lui is going to look, but will he see. If it is porn, he does not look or see. They also always said they listen, but do not hear.

As for CASE, better not place too much hope on a hopeless, given up for dead, body.

Anonymous said...

"Adm Lui is going to look, but will he see. "

Adm Lui: I assured the citizen that I am going to look into this matter. Okay. Here's my conclusion: After analyzing the prospect, I will buy more Singtel shares !

Citizen: You are looking at buying shares not illegal competitive matter ?

Adm Lui: Since when I telling you I going to screw Singtel ? I rather screw you citizens than screw my wealth generator.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

whatever, if singtel pays $200m more, someone must pay for this, plus profit of course.

those silly pricks.

Anonymous said...

I suggest football fans just give up watching football, like me.

No need to worry who pays how much to whom. Life is much easier, carefree, less worries about price increases for pay TV. Let those who wants to rip you off loose a lot of money.