New service, same old stream? Why was S'pore chosen to be EPL's great streaming experiment?

This past weekend marked the first month of the English Premier League’s experiment in streaming, Premier League Plus.

For the first time in the world, the Premier League is offering a direct to consumer service, streaming live matches to Singaporean viewers, albeit with its Singaporean partner Starhub.

For Singaporean viewers, there is a certain sense of ho-hum about the changes. The price hasn't really changed; the link and the app have changed and gained some features, but are broadly similar to what was available before.

There is a concern expressed regularly on social media about whether the stream’s quality would be good enough.

My personal opinion is: it's fine.

It does beg the question, though, for Singaporean punters: why bother if it's not cheaper, and if it’s not better (it’s a little better); if you subscribe to StarHub, you might not even have to change your logins.

There’s a weird sense of being an experiment, but being neither scientist nor test subject, simply being the medium through which the test is administered.

What does the Premier League say?

When unveiling the service at the 2026 Financial Times Business of Football Summit in February, the league’s chief executive Richard Masters shed some light.

While customers might not notice the difference, Masters said that for the league it would involve a whole new set of skills that had previously been left to rights holders, both internationally and in the United Kingdom.

“We’re going to have to be our own customers,” he said, elaborating: “That means delving into things like promotion and pricing… that’s why it’s an important step for us.”

The FT article indicates that while the league had been considering such a move, it had been reluctant to do so for various reasons.

It appears that one of the stepping stones to that point involved the one thing all Premier League fans love to hate (unless you’re a fan of that team. You know the one.), the Video Assistant Referee.

VARiety packs

As reported by Sports Pro, the move to VAR was facilitated by the league building a specialised facility known as Stockley Park.

There, the video stream from all matches is collected for referee analysis, but it also allows for the packaging and distribution internationally.

The Premier League brought its media production in-house from sports marketing firm IMG in 2024, when the 20 Premier League teams unanimously voted to end its relationship with sports marketing firm IMG, which had provided content and broadcast services for over 20 years.

While this certainly paved the way for the league to take things in-house, Masters indicated that the day when it would be the sole distributor of Premier League matches was still some way off.

Instead, the league was focused on optionality, and that “It’ll be a mixed economy over time.”

The Singapore connections

And in truth, Masters doesn’t go into much detail as to why Singapore was chosen, other than saying it was “a very long considered process and carefully chosen.”

He also noted the six-year agreement that the league had with StarHub, which, when he said it, was just after the halfway point of the agreement.

Masters said that the Singapore deal was “really about learning as well as building a business” and that the aim was for it to be replicable in other markets.

One of the few allusions to Singaporean customers was when Masters noted that “lots of existing customers exist within the StarHub platform and they will continue.”

It is never explicitly said, but it reads like a benefit Singapore presented was the ability to introduce the new product into a suitably sizeable market without meaningfully disrupting the customer base.

The Athletic reports that StarHub will also share responsibility for billing customers and handling complaints, making the service’s introduction significantly easier.

Fair enough.

3pm blackout

However, customers in the league’s home country might have to endure disappointment in the future.

The possibility of a direct-to-consumer streaming service, nicknamed Premflix, is strongly desired by many.

In Singapore, StarHub has largely consolidated its football offerings, meaning that if you support a Premier League team, they can provide you with almost all the matches.

But in the UK, to watch all of your team’s matches, you will need at least two services, Sky and TNT Sports, for about S$130 a month.

Not to mention, in the UK, broadcasters are not allowed to show matches that start at 3 pm (10 pm Singapore time) live, due to fears that it will affect in-stadium turnout at football matches across all levels, something which has been called into question on several occasions.

So there is a possibility that the new service has a secondary, ulterior motive: to combat piracy.

The Athletic reports that in the UK there is a 10 per cent self-reported piracy rate, which means that the true number is likely to be higher.

In fact, it has been reported that some UK fans have reacted with outrage over how much better a deal Premier League Plus is, especially as there’s no indication that it will ever reach the UK.

FT described the deals the league had with UK broadcasters such as Sky as the “bedrock” of the league’s business.

Us of lesser cup competitions

It is hard not to sympathise.

This author has chosen to refrain from watching matches (more because I’m a United fan, and the past few years of poor performances meant a lot of 4 am Tuesday morning matches, which I’m too old to stay up for).

But at least with the one-day option, and the relatively forgiving month-by-month option for subscription, I’m happy to have something to think about for the first time in years.

I’m not sure I’ll subscribe, though; I don’t know if I can afford the heart attacks my team provides.