MDA fines SingNet $180,000 for Mio TV disruption in last season's Barclay Premier League match

The Media Development Authority (MDA) has fined SingNet $180,000 for a Mio TV service disruption on the night of 13 May 2012 during the finale of last season's Barclay Premier League.

MDA said SingNet, as a Nationwide Subscription Television Service Licensee, had contravened its licence conditions on Quality of Service, which requires pay-TV services to be provided at reasonable quality that meets public expectations.

The island-wide disruption affected some 115,000 Mio TV subscribers who were tuning in to the concluding matches of the 2011/2012 Barclays Premier League (BPL) season on 13 May 2012.

Some of the affected areas included Yishun, Choa Chu Kang, Clementi, Bukit Timah, Toa Payoh, Marine Parade, Punggol and Pasir Ris.

Viewers experienced reception issues, including intermittent screen freezes and blurred images from 10.15pm.

Full service quality was only restored at around 12.15am after the televised matches concluded.

Investigations traced the cause of the disruption to the higher level of channel switching activity among subscribers while viewing the live BPL matches.

This led to network congestion and resulted in reception difficulties for the subscribers.

MDA noted that SingNet has compensated affected Mio TV subscribers in the form of subscription rebates amounting to about S$5 million, as well as taken remedial actions to prevent a recurrence.