SINGAPORE: With SingTel and StarHub in a deadlock with Fifa over television rights to the 2010 World Cup, a new player has emerged with the ability to give Singaporeans full access to the biggest football extravaganza of the year.
British company Perform Group, a sports and entertainment specialist for digital media, has been closely monitoring the drama that has kept the telephone companies in an impasse with football’s world governing body over a reported $40 million fee.
No progress has been made yet despite the Football Association of Singapore’s approaches to Fifa.
Perform is now interested in making available all the World Cup matches from South Africa to Singapore viewers after Fifa’s sales representatives, Football Media Services, approached the company.
Mr Jason Swanson, Perform’s advertising and sponsorship sales manager in Singapore, told MediaCorp, they have the capability and technology in place, and can put it online — even at the eleventh hour.
The matches, he said, will be shown live on the Internet — which Fifa would not otherwise make available to a country that does not pay the rights for it.
Various packages, said Mr Swanson, would be made available to Singapore viewers.
"It could be a pay—per—view option or a package for all the games," he said. "What we will do is to set up a site where people could go in and make their choices, whether they want to watch only the England games or all the matches. There are lots of ways we can do it."
He added that Perform streams about 15,000 matches online every year and is currently delivering the Australian Open.
Last October, the company made history by broadcasting an England match for the first time exclusively on the Internet for 5 ($11) for those who booked early, and 12 for late subscribers.
The pre—World Cup qualifier with Ukraine was watched by 500,000 British viewers, which the company claimed was the largest audience for a pay—per—view sports event online.
Mr Swanson said the World Cup could be made cheaper for Singapore, relative to the England—Ukraine match, as Perform intends to rope in sponsors and advertisers.
He said the potential pool of 2 million viewers here can also expect high quality images of June’s World Cup that can be projected on television and big screens without Internet interruptions.
"When we delivered the England game, there were no issues and there should be none in Singapore because we have the servers and the broadband here is also very good," he said.
Mr Swanson said providing the World Cup service is something Perform is keen to do.
"When I talk to people on the streets, they are pretty upset they may not get to see the World Cup. They want to watch here and not go across the Causeway," he said.
"If none of the big players step up for the TV rights, we’ll see what Fifa wants because it would be worth doing it in Singapore.
"They know our capabilities and are familiar with how we deliver sports events online." — TODAY
Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20100128/tap-887-singapore-gets-world-cup-option-231650b.html