By Jan Lin

A bizarre media report released last month sparked off speculation of the (im)possibility of a joint-bid between SingTel and StarHub for the broadcast rights to the English Premier League from August 2010 to May 2013. StarHub currently owns the EPL broadcast rights to 2010.

It was announced this week that the two telcos will launch separate bids.

The rationale behind the initial prospects of a joint-bid is the prevention of a bidding war, which may just as well be a lose-lose situation with EPL as the biggest (and only?) winner. A joint-bid might thus be a strategy to respond to the increasingly pricey EPL broadcast rights.

Still, it is a long shot to suggest that in Singapore’s fiercely competitive telco market that SingTel and StarHub will join hands for ‘a global cause’. I’m a fan of neither, but I have been sore about SingTel ‘winning’ the broadcast rights to the 2009-2012 UEFA Champions League.

I’m yet to be convinced that such a move is to tame the arrogance of StarHub, who was accused to have single-handedly monopolised the industry. To me it is quite simple: SingTel wants a piece of the billion-dollar cake, even if it is of outright inconvenience to consumers.

SingTel mio TV Football Frenzy covers the UEFA Champions League and Serie A. So a supporter of an English or Spanish football club would now have to fork out almost double of what they were paying in order to watch both the domestic leagues and the regional league on TV.

Though the UEFA Champions League might have become a little less elusive given that each of the English ‘Big Four’ has graced the final at least once over the last 5 seasons, subscribing to SingTel mio TV Football Frenzy comes with an uncalculated risk.

For the EPL or La Liga, even if the team you support doesn’t go on to win the title at least you are guaranteed being able to watch your team play 38 times. But in the Champions League, if your team crashes out in the group stage then every Singaporean will almost certainly say, ‘very lugi leh‘.

So who will you be rooting for?

(M1, my dear, are you laughing?)