Since Wednesday, there have been heated talks between StarHub and Discovery Southeast Asia (DSA) regarding prices. DSA accused StarHub of not being prepared to “pay fair value”. StarHub was prepared to drop all the 11 channels under the Discovery brand.
In their press release, Discovery said, “we have unfortunately reached an impasse as StarHub is not prepared to pay fair value and have announced their decision to cease transmission of all 11 Discovery channels on their platform”.
They added, “All we are asking for is the equivalent of a cup of coffee per customer per month”.
Popular channels that come under the Discovery umbrella include Discovery Channel, Animal Planet ,TLC, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel and Asian Food Channel.
StarHub planned to stop airing seven of the Discovery channels as of June 30, and the remaining four after August 31.
On Wednesday, StarHub added that they were “still in renewal negotiations with Discovery”, and that they wanted to “secure a deal which would allow [them] to offer [their] customers the same content at a reasonable price”.
Discovery’s channels will still air on Singtel TV.
That day, StarHub also took to Facebook to post an update on the negotiations with Discovery.
They said, “Concurrently, we are acquiring fresh content in the event that negotiations prove unsuccessful. If we are unable to agree on a renewal, the seven Discovery Networks channels will cease transmission on 30 June 2018. As factual entertainment fans ourselves, we will announce the launch of several new channels to ensure a continued good range of education and lifestyle channels for you”.
Netizens were disgruntled by this announcement and took to the comments to express their unhappiness.
obbana@theindependent.sg