StarHub Loses EPL, ESPN STAR Sports

SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecom’s IPTV offering mioTV has delivered a major blow to rival pay-TV service StarHub, beating it out for the rights to English Premier League for the next three seasons beginning in 2010 and scoring a number of flagship channels from ESPN STAR Sports.

The IPTV’s platform’s EPL package also covers Internet and mobile rights to the matches, which for the last several years have been carried on cable platform StarHub. Announcing the acquisition, Allen Lew, SingTel’s CEO, noted: "Football fans can look forward to a revolutionary way of viewing ‘live’ soccer matches on TV, the Internet and their mobile phones. Best of all, they will not be charged more than what they are currently paying to their cable TV operator, while at the same time enjoying superior experience and convenience from our integrated platform offering."

Meanwhile, mioTV has nabbed a number of ESPN STAR Sports channels, effective mid-2010. They include ESPN, STAR Sports and STAR Cricket, which are currently available on StarHub, and ESPNEWS, a 24-hour sports news channel that is set to launch in November. Other services from ESS will be announced soon, mioTV said.

In a statement about the impending loss of many of its key sports, offerings, StarHub’s head of content, Kathleen Syron, said: "While we are committed to offering quality sports content, we are mindful of the balance in meeting consumers’ expectations with regard to price, and shareholders’ expectations in terms of profits. Presently our sports package is priced below the cost of the content that makes up that package. Our bid for BPL was aggressive, but also made with the intent to hold retail prices stable."