SINGAPORE — In the largest fine meted out for pay-TV service disruption, SingNet was yesterday fined S$180,000 for a mio TV service outage during the final matches of the last Barclays Premier League (BPL) season.

Investigations by regulator Media Development Authority (MDA) found that on the night of May 13 last year, some 115,000 mio TV subscribers had to put up with blurred images and occasional screen freezes, as they were tuning in to the matches.

These started at about 10.15pm and were resolved two hours later after the matches ended. This frustrated viewers who were hoping to catch every minute of the nail-biting title decider involving Manchester City and Manchester United, with some disruptions coming at key moments.

As 10 games were telecast live simultaneously that day, the MDA said the disruption was caused by network congestion. “Investigations traced the cause of the service disruption to the higher level of channel switching activity among subscribers while viewing the live BPL matches, which led to network congestion and resulted in reception difficulties for the subscribers,” the MDA added.

Some affected areas, it said, included Yishun, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Timah, Toa Payoh, Punggol and Pasir Ris. Under its licensing conditions, SingNet has to ensure that pay-TV services are provided at “reasonable quality that meets public expectations and is satisfactory to the MDA”.

While there is no maximum amount that an operator could be fined, factors taken into consideration in arriving at the penalty included the extent and duration of the service disruption, the potential number of subscribers affected, the antecedence of past disruptions, as well as corrective actions.

In imposing the S$180,000 fine, the authority noted that SingNet has provided compensation to affected mio TV subscribers in the form of subscription rebates amounting to about S$5 million, and has taken remedial actions to prevent a recurrence.

A SingTel spokesperson assured customers that the company takes the quality and reliability of its pay TV service “very seriously”. “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.”

This is the third time the MDA has fined SingNet for its mio TV outages.

In 2010, it was fined S$50,000 for a 12-hour outage on March 2010 caused by a software glitch, which affected more than 10,000 subscribers. Last year, SingNet was fined S$80,000 for disruptions in October and November, which affected about 850 subscribers in Pasir Ris, Changi, Tampines, Woodlands and Bukit Timah.