StarHub offering $120 discount to customers who give up illegal set-top boxes

From today, those using illegal set-top boxes that can stream free pirated movies and television shows will be able to exchange them at a discount for non-infringing ones to watch legitimate content offered by StarHub.

Users will have to pay a flat subscription fee of $30 a month to watch legal content. This includes TV series and blockbuster films from Disney+ and HBO Go.

But whether this will be successful could depend on whether consumers believe StarHub's offering is value for money compared with other legal options and the free but illegal alternatives, according to consumers and legal experts.

StarHub's deal is in an attempt to fight digital piracy. Under the exchange offer at selected StarHub shops, the telco will give customers $120 to pay off the usual $5 monthly fee customers pay for renting its StarHub TV+ set-top box for two years, the length of the subscription contract. After that, box rental fees will kick in.

This comes after proposals tabled by the Ministry of Law in Parliament earlier this month to update the Copyright Act to strengthen the copyright regime.

But the expected changes to the law are not focused on going after consumers of pirated content - they are geared towards businesses that enable people to do so.

Mr Alban Kang, a partner at law firm Bird & Bird ATMD's intellectual property and technology group, said that watching streamed video from unauthorised sources might not be illegal for consumers here under certain circumstances.

This is due to how streaming can work, in which only a fraction of a video is downloaded and shown to users at any one time, before it is removed from the device. This might not be considered a substantial copying of the movie and thus not infringing on copyright.

If the stream downloads much more of a movie to show users from an illegal source, it could be enough to be an infringement.

This could partly factor into whether consumers will switch from illegal streaming to legal options such as StarHub's, Mr Kang said.

Also, there is the issue of whether consumers believe StarHub's offer is worth it.

"It's a good move by StarHub to try to encourage legal streaming," said Mr Kang. "But how successful it will be is dependent on whether the telco offers content that is value for money and what consumers are looking for."

He said StarHub's two-year contract period might not be acceptable to some consumers used to subscriptions like Netflix's which are on a shorter monthly basis.

Consumers like Mr R. Tan, 30, do not believe the new StarHub plan is worth it, even with the $120 carrot.

He does not see value when there are cheaper legal options like standalone Disney+ and Netflix subscriptions that start from about $12 a month each.

He is also not convinced the content through StarHub is attractive enough.

"Set-top boxes are more for older people who do not know how to access streaming services, so StarHub's offering is quite obsolete," said Mr Tan, who is currently unemployed and looking for a job.

For more details on the StarHub plan, visit www.starhub.com