Higher prices to watch Euro 2012 - TODAYonline

European Football Leagues

SINGAPORE - Football fans will have to pay significantly more to watch this year's Euro 2012 championship "live" on TV.

StarHub, which won exclusive rights in November last year, released its price structure yesterday for all 31 matches to be carried on its pay TV, online and mobile platforms.

The tournament will be co-hosted by Poland and the Ukraine from June 8 to July 1.

The early bird offer is S$58.85 including Goods and Services Tax, for those who sign up by April 30. After that, it will cost fans S$69.55.

The figures are a significant increase, considering consumers paid only S$10 or S$20, respectively, for Euro 2008.

StarHub told Today the price increase is due in large part to a jump in rights fees imposed by UEFA, the European football governing body.

This will be the first exclusive content to come under the purview of the Cross-Carriage Measure (CCM) laws which took effect from August last year.

The telecommunications giant must now also offer the Euro 2012 package to subscribers of rival pay TV operator mio TV at the same price. But it remains a healthy market for StarHub because, combined with mio TV's, the telco will have a subscriber base of more than 900,000 to tap from.

Customers of mio TV can buy the Euro 2012 package at any StarHub shop or exclusive partner outlet without installing a separate set-top box or having to sign up as a subscriber.

Bidding wars, especially when SingTel's mio TV wrested the lucrative English Premier League TV rights in 2010, resulted in hefty price hikes in sports content on pay TV and eventually led to the CCM laws.

While both telcos said in June last year they were considering bidding for Euro 2012, mio TV declined to comment if they had actually done so.

Football fan Sanjay Sasidaran, who subscribes to both StarHub and mio TV, felt even the early bird price of S$58.85 was too expensive.

Said the 33-year-old marketing manager: "Maybe S$30 would have been more reasonable. But as a football fan I will bite the bullet and pay up."

Sales executive Roger Quak, 31, disagreed.

"Every two years to watch a major tournament like this (World Cup or European Championships) is not expensive. I'll buy it because of the convenience of watching the matches at home, rather than going elsewhere," he said.

Understandably, SingTel has no plans to promote Euro 2012.

"We will fulfil our obligation under the Media Market Conduct Code and carry the Euro 2012 matches to any mio TV customer who subscribes to the package," said a SingTel spokesperson.

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