Singtel to broadcast five Uefa Champions League matches
Football fans subscribed to Singtel TV were given a last-gasp reprieve after the pay-TV operator announced on its Facebook page last night that it would be broadcasting five matches from the first round of the Uefa Champions League (UCL) group stage.
At 9.18pm yesterday - barely four hours before the first round of games got underway - Singtel posted a Facebook update saying it would be showing today's matches on its three mio Sports channels.
They include the Inter Milan-Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona-PSV Eindhoven games at 12.55am and the Liverpool-Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Monaco- Atletico Madrid and Club Brugge- Borussia Dortmund games at 3am.
A Singtel spokesman told The New Paper the matches were not available on its Singtel Cast over-the-top streaming service.
Uncertainty still hangs over the broadcasting rights as the telco did not give further details about its negotiations with the rights holder, or if tomorrow's matches - which include Young Boys-Manchester United, Valencia-Juventus and Real Madrid-Roma - will be shown.
Replying to comments on its Facebook post, Singtel told subscribers to look out for updates today for subsequent games.
The announcement also comes as cold comfort to StarHub subscribers.
StarHub's spokesman told TNP last night that today's matches would not be shown on its channels and it remained in discussions to secure broadcast rights.
StarHub subscriber of two years, Mr Isaac Xu, 32, told TNP that he felt shortchanged.
Said the account manager: "The least (StarHub) could do was to match whatever its competition was doing while it sorts the issues out. It is extremely disappointing but I guess this is what happens when it is all about money."
The die-hard Liverpool fan had to miss out on the clash with PSG this morning.
Mr Xu said: "It is a massive knife to the heart... It is painful to not be able to watch it on a service I pay for."
Malaysian pay-TV operator Astro announced last night on its Facebook page that it would be showing today's UCL games. Astro's Chief of Sports Lee Choong Khay said it had secured the broadcasting rights for the 2018/19 season in Malaysia.
TNP previously reported that live sports streaming service DAZN had won the rights to broadcast three seasons of the UCL and Uefa Europa League from this year in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
It also reported yesterday that football website Goal.com posted links to free live video streams of all 16 matches this game-week for seven South-east Asian countries, including Singapore.
Both Goal.com and DAZN are owned by sports media company Perform Group. Previous calls by TNP to its Singapore office and queries sent to its British headquarters have gone unanswered.
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