Singtel bags Premier League rights again

SINGTEL said it has won the Singapore broadcast rights to all English Premier League (EPL) matches for the next three seasons starting from August 2016.

This comes a week after the telco's Australian subsidiary, Optus, said it won the Australian rights to broadcast the popular British football league, also known as the Barclays Premier League because it is sponsored by Barclays Bank.

Yuen Kuan Moon, CEO of Singtel's Singapore consumer business, said in a statement on Tuesday that Singtel TV fans "can be assured that their football experience stays uninterrupted at rates that remain affordable".

Singtel has held the rights to broadcast the EPL here since 2009, when it wrested the 2010-13 season rights from incumbent StarHub, which has been showing the games since 1997. Singtel reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the rights. Singtel secured the rights to the 2013-16 season again in 2012.

The EPL rights boosted Singtel's pay TV subscriber base significantly from 78,000 as of March 31, 2009 to 423,000 as of March 31, 2015.

Singtel shares last traded at S$3.87.