SingTel Mio TV drops Al Jazeera English

Ever since Al Jazeera was taken off the air on 1 April, there has been speculation in the market that the channel was taken off air due to the controversial nature of its coverage on Singapore. The channel carried stories on the socio-economic issues in the country including homelessness, prostitution and rising prices.

The channel started broadcasting on SingTel's mio TV two years ago.

A letter sent to subscribers in March stated the news channel would be dropped from 1 April as mio TV "strives to enhance our channel offerings".

The channels that are believed to have replaced Al-Jazeera include Euronews, Russia Today and CCTV 9.

Since its launch in 2007 SingTel has dropped less than 10 channels.

In an interview given to trade publication Content Asia, the Arabic news channel said that while they are disappointed to be pulling out of Singapore, it remains "hopeful that the values Al-Jazeera stands for will in time be welcomed by Singapore."

"As the region's media hub, we also hope that Singapore can in the future treat all international news channels equally."