SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin, Drew & Napier LLC
YouTube, for example, may be automatically deemed to be class-licensed, and must com - ply with the conditions of the class licence and the Internet Code of Practice. Amongst other requirements, broadcasting class licensees may be asked by the IMDA to remove or prohibit the broadcast of certain programmes the IMDA has deemed to be against the public interest, public order or national harmony or to offend against good taste or decency. Furthermore, as of 1 February 2023, the amend - ed BA contains measures to regulate providers of online communication services (OCS). The IMDA will also be empowered to issue direc - tions to deal with egregious content that can be accessed by Singapore users on an OCS (see 10.1 Laws and Regulations for Social Media for more details on the Online Safety Act). Eligibility, Fees and Charges In general, broadcasting companies are required to be Singapore-incorporated companies or the registered local branches of a foreign compa - ny in order to hold a “relevant licence” (unless exempted by the Minister for Communications and Information). A “relevant licence” (which excludes class licences) refers to any free-to air licence or any broadcasting licence under which a subscription broadcasting service may be provided, and which permits broadcasts that are capable of being received in 50,000 dwelling houses or more. Different types of broadcasting licences may come with different licence fees, as follows: • for free-to-air nationwide television service licences, licensees must pay 2.5% of their total revenue or SGD250,000 per annum, whichever is higher, and provide a perfor - mance bond of SGD200,000;
• for free-to-air nationwide radio service licences, licensees must pay 2.5% of their total revenue per annum and provide a per - formance bond of SGD200,000 in the form of a banker’s guarantee; • for subscription international television ser - vice licences (for satellite television service broadcasters), licensees must pay SGD5,000 per annum and provide a performance bond of SGD50,000 in the form of a banker’s guar - antee if they are not based or registered in Singapore; • for nationwide subscription television ser - vice licences, licensees must pay 2.5% of their total revenue or SGD50,000 per annum, whichever is higher, and provide a perfor - mance bond of SGD200,000; and • for niche television service licences (which applies to providers of television services targeting niche market segments and over- the-top television services delivered through the internet), no licence fee is required. For completeness, yearly fees are payable for certain types of services under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification, as follows: • teletext services – SGD2,000; • computer online services by internet access service providers – SGD1,000; • computer online services by non-localised internet service resellers – SGD100 (if fewer than 500 user accounts) or SGD1,000 (for 500 accounts or more); and • computer online services by localised internet service resellers – SGD100 for each premises at which the computer online services are provided.
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