StarHub has done something so stupid with its Barclays Premier League programming that I’m sure all the thousands of football fans in Singapore will join me in wanting to wring these idiots’ necks.
On a weekday night when there is a nearly-full Barclays Premier League schedule – 9 matches in all – StarHub has chosen to screen only two of them tonight.
That’s not the worst. Of the two, one of them is – get this – Stoke City vs Sunderland!
It makes you wonder how many Stoke or Sunderland fans there are in Singapore, and how many among those will wake up at 3:30am SGT to watch the match.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are all playing tonight. Yet, StarHub amazingly chooses to not screen any of those matches, which are guaranteed to be watched by so many more fans (it is screening Arsenal vs Spurs on both Ch27 and HD304).
It’s not just that football is expensive to follow in Singapore. It’s also how desperately poor the programming is here. Let’s not even start with the unfunny hosts on Football Channel each weekend, or the lousy picture quality that looks even worse on everyone’s new Full HD TVs.
It’s talk about giving the basic programming that people want. Even with that, StarHub has such a long way to go.
Could it not use its Ch21 – which is doing nothing tonight – to screen the matches? Could it not stream the matches over MaxOnline’s VOD service (now called StarHubTV Online) to let people to watch on their computers, say, as a pay-per-view gig?
You might think I am unreasonable here, by demanding to see all the matches of the top 4 teams – Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. But let’s take a look at our friendly business rivals Hong Kong.
Head on to the HK broadband TV operator PCCW’s Premier League fixture list and you’ll see that NowTV has NINE channels showing all NINE matches tonight, even though it’s early in the morning.
Yes, Singapore StarHub subscribers, eat your heart out – HK subscribers pay a lot for football like us, yes, but at least they get everything they want.
I struggle to find ways to describe how stupid this programming screw-up is. It’s times like these when you hope you’d get pirated TV channels more easily, just so that pay-TV operators do not hold their viewers hostage.
she already said the practice is the same for all international broadcasters. you think starhub’s money so big the big guns at the fa premier league will change their policies just for them? singapore is so small, who cares about us? oh please. pay more and get less. what is new? pay more for mrt and get less standing room. pay more for lunch and get less meat. pay 21% more for electricity and what value do you get? this is the reality…
Good to hear that there won’t be any more missing matches. Still, it’s not good enough for pay-TV operators like StarHub to say that “our contract restricts us to broadcast X number of matches”.
In the old past when we were lucky to get 2 live matches a weekday, that would be fine. But after asking viewers for substantial increases in price, the least that can be done is for pay-TV operators to renegotiate more aggressively in the next round.
Otherwise, for users, it is unquestionably a matter of paying more and getting less value.
As for alloting the “omitted matches” early in the season, could this not be staggered? Broadcasting only 2 out 9 matches on a busy and important day on the BPL calendar is bad decision-making in programming choice.
A second point – could StarHub have broadcasted 9 matches simultaneously if there were only 3 channels allocated to the BPL? Yes, there were many matches done at the same time in the last day of last season. But 9 – that is the benchmark set by PCCW.
Hi Alfred,
This is Shu-Yin from StarHub. I refer to your post on the non-telecast of the midweek Barclays Premier League matches.
To clarify, StarHub’s contractual agreement with the content provider, the FA Premier League, allows us to air up to 370 out of the 380 ‘live’ matches for each Premier League season, whereby equal treatment has to be given to all Premier League teams. As there are 20 teams, a total of one match per team will not be shown.
This practice is applicable for all seasons, to all international broadcasters, and is not unique to StarHub. PCCW will need to omit ten matches from their fixture list for the season as well.
We have decided not to air the matches at this stage so that we can air all the crucial matches in the later part of the season. We have also chosen not to air the midweek matches as viewership is generally higher over the weekend.
Here’s the list of the ten Premier League matches that were not aired on StarHub TV this season. We’ll be airing every Premier League match henceforth.
4 October 2008
1. Sunderland vs Arsenal
19 October 2008
2. Stoke City vs Tottenham Hotspur
28 October 2008
3. Bolton Wanderers vs Everton
4. Middlesbrough vs Manchester City
29 October 2008
5. Aston Villa vs Blackburn Rovers
6. Hull City vs Chelsea
7. Newcastle United vs West Bromwich Albion
8. Fulham vs Wigan Athletic
9. Liverpool vs Portsmouth
10. Manchester United vs West Ham United
Hope this clarifies. Feel free to get in touch with me if you need more information.