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MUMBAI: The rights for a key sports property English Premier
League (EPL) are in the process of being decided.
While the decision for India is expected tomorrow, the rights
for some other key Asian countries have been announced. With
a new entrant coming in this year (Nimbus' channel Neo Sports
Plus) and Zee Sports pushing soccer through its tie-up with
the All India Football Federation (AIFF), one can expect the
process to be competitive for India.
Nimbus Sport, Ten Sports and Zee Sports have all made bids
for the Indian subcontinent. Geo TV has bid for Pakistan.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS) had made a pan Asian bid. Yes TV which
is owned by Malysian firm Astro, had also made a pan Asian
bid.
Meanwhile, ESS which is the incumbent in India, is having
a difficult time of it as far as Asia is concerned. Singapore
pay TV operator Starhub has announced that it has won the
exclusive rights to air EPL matches in the state.
Arch rival Singtel had also bid for the rights. Earlier it
had been announced that Hong Kong's PCCW had won the EPL rights
for that city. The matches will air on PCCW's internet and
pay-television unit Now Broadband, which outbid i-Cable Communications
to get the rights.
Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates
in addition to Singapore, ESS has also not managed to retain
the rights for China and Thailand. They had to raise their
bid quite a bit to retain the rights for Malaysia and Indonesia.
An industry source believes that ESS will particularly feel
the loss in Thailand but Singapore, with its substantial expat
population that keenly follows soccer might also hurt.
Thailand had at least five bidders with UBC winning, ESS
had to outbid eight parties to retain the rights for Malaysia.
In Japan, Yes TV won. In China Guangdong Soccer channel won
and there were reportedly six bids, Sources indicate that
ESS has managed to get the rights for smaller territories
like Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei.
Meanwhile, media reports indicate that sports fans are hoping
for better programming and moderate price increases from StarHub.
It has EPL rights for the next three seasons starting from
next year. This will help StarHub maintain its vice like grip
on the pay TV market in Singapore.
In a statement, StarHub says that it also has the rights
to distribute EPL through broadband Internet and cellphone
networks in Singapore. StarHub is now looking at delivering
a more enhanced experience for socer fans.
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