By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports
Edward Ying of SingTel. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Raffles City Convention Centre, Wednesday, July 28, 2010 — Singapore’s historical ties with Britain is one of the main reasons for SingTel’s all-out bid to secure the English Premier League broadcast rights for the 2010/11 — 2013/14 seasons.
His generation grew up under the rule of the British Empire and so have a connection with the EPL, said Edward Ying, Singtel Chief of Content and Media Services. He was speaking at the Soccerex Asian Forum.
Although SingTel has never disclosed how much they paid for the rights which they wrested from incumbent StarHub, local analysts have pegged the amount at £200 million (SGD 426 million; source: forbes.com).
In 2001, the international broadcast rights fees totalled £178 million (SGD 379 million). Therefore, SingTel paid more, for just one territory, than what the whole international market did in 2001 (source: bbc.co.uk).
“Singtel is moving from traditional TV to a multimedia provider. By 2013, the country is expected to be 100% fibre-ready, so we’ll have to grow our media and services, one part of them is paid TV,” said Ying.
StarHub is left with the German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga on its pay tv service.
A new Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore ruling earlier this year has banned the Singapore telcos from carrying exclusive content and so lucrative deals like these for the EPL in Singapore will probably be a thing of the past (source: ft.com).
Um, if the reason most of Singapore likes soccer is because of the British, then could Edward Ying please explain why cricket has been an abysmal failure when that was the sport the Brits actually played while they were here? And what’s happened with rugby union??
I’d guess it has more to do with the ASEAN region being into soccer than the British. But that’s just me being difficult..though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, somewhere, has written a thesis on this topic..
[…] the most lucrative territory for the English Premier League when local telecommunications company SingTel paid a reported £200 million (SGD 426 million) for the broadcast rights for the 2010/11 to 2013/14 […]