Singaporean pay-TV operator Starhub reportedly plans to offer its own video-on-demand service, in part a response to the arrival of competitor mio TV, SingTel’s IPTV operation. The news comes a day after SingTel announced new on-demand deals with three US studios. 

Talking to Media Asia, Starhub’s head of cable TV services Patrick Lim said: “StarHub will be launching our VOD services very soon, which will also carry popular TV series with advanced windows. But whatever the choices, we know that people want good value, convenience, good customer service, a full range of quality programing and reliable networks.”

Starhub was a monopoly pay-TV operator in the territory until mio TV’s arrival a year ago. Just three days prior to mio’s launch, with video-on-demand as well as linear channels, Starhub started to offer its Hubstation digital video recorder product (pictured, above), an improved version of its previous DVR product, Smart TV.

A year further on, however, and the digital cable operator has yet to offer on-demand services, either through its network or its DVR.

Mio’s deal with the three studios – Disney-ABC International Television, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. International TV Distribution – will see mio screen “over 50” US series as early as 24 hours after their US premieres. SingTel claimed that mio would be the first IPTV operator in the world to offer such a volume of top US series within a day of their US telecast on a subscription-based model. The service, Season Pass, will launch in September.

Allen Lew, SingTel’s CEO Singapore, said: “Consumers are getting increasingly demanding.  They want to get the latest TV hits ahead of anyone else and mio TV is filling this gap with this latest offering.  We see this as the next big wave of content consumption in Singapore.”

Mio TV has 45,000 subs compared with Starhub Digital Cable's 508,000. Starhub's channels outnumber mio's by around three-to-one.