Singapore – Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) beat market expectations with a 3.3% rise in quarterly earnings. Net profit for its fiscal second quarter amounted to S$988million (US$170million), attributed to a strong showing by its local operations and regional mobile associates. Analysts point to a gain of almost 10% for SingTel’s revenue in Singapore, as well as overseas operations accounting for 53% of the group’s underlying net profit – with India’s Bharti posting a 73% leap in profits. Last week also saw SingTel significantly boost its mioTV offering via agreements with more major movie studios – and the launch of Singapore’s first Tamil movie channel. Having already launched on-demand services Sony PIX and PIX THRILLER, SingTel unveiled agreements with NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox, Disney-ABC International Television and Eros International. Each studio will offer a subscription-on-demand service offering a selection of between 15 and 28 movies each month for a fixed price of S$12.84 (US$8.90) except for EROS Bollywood, which costs $7.42. To coincide with the Deepavali celebrations, Eros Bollywood hit mio TV screens on Nov. 8, offering the latest movies such as Salaam-E-Ishq, Cheeni Kum, Nishabd, Eklavya, Namastey London, Partner, as well as classic Bollywood favourites like Mother India, Devdas, Mughal-E-Azam, Sholay – all subtitled in English. Also coinciding with Deepavali came the launch of Tamil Box Office (TBO), Singapore’s first Tamil movie channel. TBO offers movies and programs that go behind the scenes in Kollywood on TBO Star and also features locally produced entertainment shows. Upcoming blockbuster movies in November include Kreedam, Seena Thana 001, Thirudi, Periyar and Arrya. TBO costs US$5.94 per month or, for 12 months, $4.46 per month.