Dated: 28 August 2006
Singaporeans will further benefit from Singapore’s pro-business media policies and environment when a diverse range of content and entertainment programmes come onstream on their PCs and TV sets over the next few months with the entry of two new media players.
Reeltime Media Ltd and OBSTV Asia join existing players such as 1-Net, M2B and MediaCorp in rolling out their plans to offer a diverse range of content delivered via broadband.
Reeltime Media
Reeltime Media, a major Australian broadband TV service player, has been awarded a five-year video-on-demand (VOD) licence from the Media Development Authority (MDA), and will offer a wide selection of major studio and movie titles, TV episodes, arthouse and foreign films by Christmas 2006.
Mr John Karantzis, ReelTime’s Managing Director, cites Singapore’s excellent broadband infrastructure and connectivity as factors that contributed to the company’s decision to operate in Singapore as their first overseas market outside of Australia. He says, “With more than 600,000 residential high-speed broadband connections, and fewer download restrictions than Australia, Singapore is an ideal market for ReelTime.tv. Singaporeans are also known to be early adopters of technology and new media services, and are avid consumers of movies. All these augur well for our business expansion here and into the region.”
OBSTV Asia Pte Ltd
MDA has also issued a six-month Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)* trial service licence to OBSTV Asia Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based media company which aims to be a major provider of IPTV content in Asia
OBSTV Asia’s key target audience includes expatriates and overseas travelers. The trial participants can soon tune in to a wide spectrum of TV channels from Korea and Japan via a proprietary IPTV system and set-up-box.
Following the trial, OBSTV Asia plans to use Singapore as a launch pad to offer its IPTV services to other Asian and international markets.
Ms Ling Pek Ling, MDA’s Director of Media Policy says, “We are happy to see the entry of new service providers who can inject vibrancy into the Singapore media market and offer greater consumer choice. We will continue to facilitate the entry of new players through pro-business policies and a conducive environment.”
MDA welcomes more local and overseas service providers like Reeltime Media and OBSTV Asia to come forward to establish their commercial presence in Singapore.
For more information, please contact:
ReelTime.tv
Ms Anne Lawler
AKL Public Relations Pty Ltd
Tel: 61 2 9212 2185 or 0419 018 834
Email: anne@aklpr.com.au
OBSTV
Mr Edmund Ooi
Managing Director for Business Development
Tel: + 65 6733 9561
Email: Edmund@obstvasia.com
Footnote: *IPTV delivers television programming to households via a broadband connection using Internet protocol. It requires a subscription and IPTV set-up box and is typically bundled with other services like Video-on-Demand (VOD), Voice over IP (VoIP) or digital phone, and Web access, collectively referred to as Triple Play.
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