StarHub customers angered by issues with Premier League broadcast on season's opening weekend
Liverpool's Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez (left) gets in front of Fulham's English defender Tosin Adarabioyo to shoot and score their first goal during the English Premier League football match between Fulham and Liverpool at Craven Cottage in London on Aug 6, 2022. (Photo: AFP/JUSTIN TALLIS)
SINGAPORE: StarHub customers on Saturday (Aug 6) reported issues watching the Premier League broadcast on the season's opening weekend, with many complaining about the quality of the service.
Angry football fans took to social media to vent their frustrations, noting issues such as broadcast lags, freezes on their screens and poor quality video and audio.
Some users also said they were unable to log on to the StarHub TV+ app.
StarHub holds the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in Singapore. Broadcast rights were previously held by rival telco Singtel for 12 straight years.
"What a catastrophic start to the Premier League by StarHub," said Twitter user archit singh. "Absolute disastrous move from Singtel to StarHub. Unable to watch a single minute of football and it's 45 minutes already."
Another football fan tweeted: "Felt a lot like pirated stream with black screen twice in the 2nd half of Fulham Liverpool."
On StarHub's Facebook page, several people said they faced issues reaching a representative for help. "Can't watch, with no info, called hotline, on hold forever," said a Facebook user.
Others called for refunds of their subscription.
"StarHub please sort this. You have many months (to) do testing to ensure things run smoothly! It’s lagging not loading ... please refund us and sort this out," said Facebook user Duncan Tan.
The broadcast issues appeared to have affected users across Singapore, in locations such as Queenstown, East Coast, Loyang and Punggol.
In response to CNA's queries, StarHub said: "We are aware that some of our TV+ customers experienced difficulties streaming the Liverpool vs Fulham game. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are working hard to resolve these issues urgently. IPTV service was not affected."
StarHub announced in February that it won the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in Singapore for six years starting from the 2022-2023 season.
After announcing its price plans for Premier League packages, the telco saw an overwhelming response to its early bird rates for the Premier+ over-the-top service. The response promoted StarHub to extend its promotion for a second time.
