SINGAPORE – Nearly two seasons into their broadcast of the English Premier League (EPL), StarHub has come under fire from subscribers over a number of issues, but the local telco says it has identified the problems and has been working to improve customer experience.
Speaking at the Encompass Digital Media broadcast facility on Nov 30, StarHub’s head of consumer business group Johan Buse explained that the disruption issues that customers have faced in the past two years were due to three reasons: peak capacity management, broadcast-related imperfections and hardware failure.
He said: “Those are the three main categories, all of them have been debated in detail. Actions have been taken – as I always tell my people, some things you can fix overnight, some things are really fundamental and it takes a bit more time.
“Each and everyone has been identified to the dot... We have already planned for the closing end of this season because it’s a very tight season this year so typically people toggle between two channels, so how do you cater for that?
“These are things we’re regularly and continuously updating and discussing.”
Broadcast rights for the EPL returned to StarHub in 2022, when the company inked an exclusive six-year partnership with the league.
Singtel TV was previously the official broadcaster here for 12 seasons.
But disruption issues have marred fans’ experiences on several occasions since August 2022.
On the opening day of the 2022-23 season, viewers reported issues such as broadcast lags, low-quality pictures and audio, as well as sudden freezes on their screens. Fans were also left frustrated on the final day of the season after a “satellite transmission issue” left them unable to watch the opening 25 minutes of matches.
Several problems also surfaced during the opening weekend of the 2023-24 season in August, with some users encountering a “Gateway 504” error message when they tried to log in.
There were also issues a month later as subscribers reported that they could not log in to their StarHub TV app, or that it was temporarily unavailable due to a system upgrade.
Despite the hiccups, viewership for EPL has increased by 41 per cent from the end of the previous season, although Buse declined to provide detailed figures.
He stressed that the company is committed to bringing EPL action to more people, citing how the price of packages for the pioneer generation starts from $12.61 monthly.
Improving the match-day experience is an ongoing process, he stressed, noting that StarHub has been working on user interface upgrades to ensure that its platform is user-friendly and fast.
He added: “We knew that when we took it on but because of the nature of live sports, especially in opening and end-of-season games, the real fans are very passionate and really want to make sure they don’t miss a minute and they can really be close to the action.
“The insight is that the passion – which is a great thing – is there and it creates high expectations.”
