Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has won the coveted media rights to the UEFA Champions League (CL) and UEFA Cup 2009-2012. Under the agreement, SingTel has the exclusive media rights across its mobile, Internet and mio TV platforms. SingTel plans to stream UEFA CL games both “live” and on-demand on mio TV, and the Internet via its IDEAS portal. It will also offer clips on its mobile service. Pricing details are not available yet but based on the current cost structure, viewers need to fork out an additional S$117.70 just to activate mio TV (S$53.50 for installation charges, S$64.20 for a phone modem) and also spend a minimum of S$16.05 monthly on its channels. Given the steep initial charge, we can expect SingTel to come up with promotional packages to encourage viewers to sign up closer to the telecast date (August 2009). So for now, we do not expect it to boost SingTel’s fledging mio TV base. As for StarHub, where the CL has historically been shown on ESPN and STAR Sports at no additional cost to its sports subscribers, we also do not expect any major setback; the Barclays Premier League (BPL) remains its crown jewel. Until we get a clearer picture of SingTel’s pricing structure, we maintain our estimates for now. Nevertheless, we continue to like both the telcos for their defensive nature and retain our BUY ratings, with a fair value of S$4.35 for SingTel and S$3.51 for StarHub. By Carey Wong - OCBC 

Something is cooking? what's with the last minute deal of 8.6mln during pre-closing?

spot on ..up 4 c... :)... more increase to come..