Singaporean telecommunications company SingTel has been fined S$180,000 (€108,000/$145,000) by the country’s media regulator, the Media Development Authority, for service disruptions during its live coverage of the final day of the 2012-13 English Premier League season.
The regulator ruled that on the evening of May 13, 2012, some 115,000 subscribers to SingTel’s mioTV pay-television channel were affected by blurred images and occasional screen freezes.
The regulator said that problems were caused through network disruption as mioTV customers sought to keep track of the league’s 10 games, which were broadcast live simultaneously.
“Investigations traced the cause of the service disruption to the higher level of channel switching activity among subscribers while viewing the live matches, which led to network congestion and resulted in reception difficulties for the subscribers,” the regulator added, according to Singaporean newspaper Today.
In imposing the S$180,000 fine, the regulator noted that SingTel had provided compensation to affected mioTV subscribers in the form of subscription rebates amounting to about S$5 million, and had also taken action to prevent a recurrence.
A SingTel spokesperson said: “We have since engaged external experts to review and have enhanced the switching system to ensure that the viewing experience is up to the standards expected by our customers.”
In October, SingTel renewed its rights deal with the Premier League for three seasons, from 2013-14 to 2015-16.