Facebook Unites Singapore Soccer Fans

A clear message was delivered to both Singapore Telcos – Singtel and Starhub – Not to take football fans for a ride.

Singapore Telecommunications and StarHub, Singapore’s two cable-TV providers, face a revolt from more than 20,000 soccer fans after raising fees, announced May 7 – Fees to watch next month’s World Cup was raised to 7-folds, the highest in Asia, Bloomberg News reported compared to the increase from the previous tournament 4 years ago.

A May 1 report said that SingTel and StarHub paid S$15 million for the rights, triple the amount StarHub paid in 2006. The two companies declined to say how much they paid because of confidentiality agreements.

The Facebook protest group, which had 20,600 members as of Wednesday, May 12, was formed 2 days after SingTel and StarHub said they will charge existing subscribers S$70.62 if they sign up by May 31, or S$94.16 thereafter to watch the month-long tournament that starts June 11 in South Africa. For the 2006 World Cup, StarHub charged early subscribers S$10.50.

The protest group was a prompt by local resident John Chua to rally disaffected fans on a Facebook page, including Kelvin Chan, who plans a public demonstration next month.

Mr John Chua said. ‘It’s a clear case of exploitation pricing,’ he said in an e-mail. ‘They have no concern for the public even under this economy crisis and think that we will pay regardless.’

Bloomberg reported that Mr Chua’s group plans to print t-shirts that say ‘I choose not to subscribe,’ and red cards that say ‘You’re Off! SingTel, StarHub,’ mimicking the cards referees use to eject soccer players for foul play.
He did not expect such a strong response. Nevertheless, he is very proud that everybody is standing united against something that is wrong.

Mr Kelvin Chan plans to organise a demonstration at Speakers’ Corner, a venue allocated for public protests, pending government approval, he said in an e-mail.

Some viewers will instead tune in to free-to-air broadcasts of the games from neighbouring countries. Since the World Cup is not only an international but a popular event as well, MediaCorp should air all games over the air for free like Malaysia.

Local residents pay a yearly TV licence fee.