World Cup fans may miss out on all matches

IF SINGTEL and StarHub's joint bid to broadcast World Cup soccer matches fails, Singapore will face a total television blackout on the action from South Africa.

Not even the free-to-air telecasts of four critical games will be shown here if the telcos fail to secure the rights from football's world governing body Fifa - at a reported $100million.

The matches are the opening game between host South Africa and Mexico on June 11, the semi-finals on July 6 and 7, and the final on July 11.

SingTel had said earlier that if the joint bid failed, Singapore fans would still get to see those four key matches.

But a SingTel spokesman clarified with The Straits Times yesterday that that would not be the case.

'The free-to-air match telecast is dependent on whether the broadcast rights for World Cup 2010 are awarded to Singapore,' the spokesman said.

'SingTel remains hopeful to close the deal with Fifa as we genuinely want to work with Fifa to bring the World Cup to Singaporeans.'

With less than five months to go to the biggest sports event of the year, 209 territories have secured broadcast rights from Fifa. Singapore is among a few yet to do so.

But the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) will not step in on the matter yet.

MDA head of competition and market access Eileen Ang said: 'The purchase of content rights such as the World Cup is a commercial decision, and we will let market forces unfold.'

Singapore Pools has also ruled out chipping in to help the telcos out with the bid.

A spokesman said: 'Singapore Pools will not be stepping in as we are not in the business of broadcasting. It is up to the relevant parties to work out an acceptable commercial arrangement with Fifa.'

Last week, SingTel Singapore chief executive Allen Lew blamed the impasse on the amount that Fifa is asking for the rights to the 64 matches.

According to previous reports, Fifa charged StarHub $10 million for the 2002 competition in South Korea and Japan, and $15 million for the 2006 tournament in Germany. This time, it has raised its asking price to almost $100million.

An industry source said that initially, Fifa wanted an undisclosed amount for the rights. But it made a second demand of nearly $100 million after SingTel won the English Premier League (EPL) broadcast rights from this year to 2013 for a reported $400 million.

SingTel declined to comment if Fifa's increased asking price is linked to the EPL deal. Fifa has not replied to repeated queries from The Straits Times.

But past experience suggests that a compromise might yet be reached. In 2006, Israeli television stations Arutz 2 and Israel 10 were also deadlocked over broadcast rights.

It is unclear how much the Israelis offered, but in the end they were allowed to show the four free-to-air games as well as matches from the quarter-finals onwards.

If Singapore fans were hoping to lock on to signals from Malaysia to watch the World Cup, they will have no such luck.

Firstly, the broadcast rights have been secured by Malaysian pay-TV operator Astro. Secondly, although the four key matches will be shown over national broadcaster RTM 1, which is available on StarHub, the signal quality has been scrambled.

'The deterioration in the signal quality of RTM 1 since June 7, 2006, was caused when RTM began scrambling the satellite signal source that StarHub has been relying on,' explained StarHub's head of corporate communications and investor relations, Ms Jeannie Ong.

'We confirmed that RTM has received instructions from Infront Sports & Media AG, the sports and media rights distributor for the 2006 Fifa World Cup, to encrypt its satellite source so that only viewers in Malaysia will be able to receive access to the World Cup matches on RTM 1.'

StarHub has reverted to using an antenna signal, the next best signal feed available.

'Although we have been carrying the channel free-of-charge via our cable network to households in Singapore, we do not control the quality of the RTM 1 signals received,' said Ms Ong.

Source: Straits Times, 20 Jan 2010.

Comments by Property Maestro (PM):

Hahaha...Soccer fans will see red and be green-eyed at their Northern neighbours.
Well done, SingTel and Starhub!