Sunday, March 30, 2008

Savings on Home Entertainment in Singapore

I thought of writing this post to help people to choose better Cable TV and Internet for their home usage. As with all services we must be careful with choosing the right vendor and package. As once we are into the contract, we cannot exit without penalty. Also you can only upgrade your plan from the existing one, no downgrade of plans possible !


Cable TV

We have two options for Cable TV in Singapore.

Starhub

Starhub is one of the major provider of Cable TV Services in Singapore. They have more subscriber base than their competitor Singtel MioTV.

  • Starhub has all popular channels with them like Discovery, HBO, Star Movies, Sony etc
  • It is more popular with Indians as they have Zee TV, Sony, Star Plus and Star Gold Hindi channels
  • The cable tv is delivered via traditional Cable point in the flat..generally available in all HDB/Condo flats
  • The quality of service is good.
  • Hindi channels are International version of the same channel in India to suite timezone and interest.
  • Around 6 local channels are offered free.
Cost
  • You need to choose 3 basic groups plus any additional channels
  • They have value packs to suite the needs to many people
  • Hindi World value pack costs $44.94 at present which has Star Plus, Sony Entertainment and Zee TV
  • The charges for other exclusive channels like HBO, Star Movies, Cinemax are higher.
Sintel MioTV

Recently MioTV is trying to compete with Stahub. Though they do not not have same channels as Starhub but do offer good price plans and other channels which Starhub may not offer.

  • The delivery of MioTV is using ADSL Router!
  • One needs to have Telephone line from Singtel too to have this offering.
  • Quality is good
  • Some good channels for Indians are NDTV 24x7 News channel, NDTV Profit and Zee TV.
  • They have EROS Bollywood Movie(Video on demand) channel as well which offers 15 movies to view from!
  • Again 6 local channels are offered free!
Cost
  • Cost is very competitive
  • The minimum charge per month is $16.05 !
  • You can pay on per month basis too. This is something Starhub do not offer as of now.

If you are really not watching channels like Discovery, National Geo, HBO etc ..Then Singtel mio TV is best for you. Although you need to buy a telephone line in order to have the Cable TV, still the competitive price plan offered by Singtel is very cost effective. Specially if you are only watching news and also would like to get the good news channel from India like NDTV 24x7 you should go for mio TV. Also NDTV Profit is also a good channel if you like to keep upto date with Indian Stock Market and business!

I was having starhub for last 1 year and now enjoying Sintel mio TV!.

One thing you need to remember that for Starhub cable TV there is a minimum contract of 3 or 6 months. But Singtel mio TV is pay per month basis. So it all depends on your choice of channels to make the choice for Starhub or mio TV

Always check with promotional offers at the time of contracting..that really helps to cut the cost things like initial charges, set-top box or any other discounts they are offering.

The best thing is to get a connection transfer from someone whose contract is near to end!.

Hope this helps!

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