HONG KONG –VeeV Interactive, a company proposing an educational TV service, has won the first "Niche Subscription TV" license in Singapore.

          Niche licenses allow broadcast of programming including scheduled and on-demand services over any delivery platform to minority auds, defined as being less than 100,000 subscribers in Singapore. There are no must-carry obligations and no ownership conditions, nor a cap on revenue. License term is for five years and costs a minimum of S$5,000 ($3,580).

          Veev, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sky Media Pte, intends to roll out a commercial Internet Protocol TV service focused on education. Using Singapore as its research and development centre, Veev also has plans to expand its digital media business into the region.

          The niche permits are part of a two tier license structure intended by the Singapore government and the Media Development Authority to develop IPTV.

First nationwide license was granted in January 2007 to SingNet (Variety, Jan 17 2007), which in August launched IPTV pay-platform mioTV in August last year (Variety, July 31, 2007.)