Espnstar Tv Coverage

[delboy]

I stumbled upon an ESPNSTAR press release dated 9th November 1997 which explains why the Community Shield and the England internationals are not being broadcast this season in Thailand.

http://www.espnstar.com/about-us/press-rel...ease/item63473/

The first part of the press release states:

9 November 2007, Singapore: ESPN STAR Sports, Asia's No. 1 sports broadcaster, has renewed a multi-year exclusive agreement with England's governing body of football, The Football Association (The FA), for broadcast rights to The FA Cup, England Internationals and The FA Community Shield on multimedia platforms for the 2008/9 - 2011/12 seasons.

Under the agreement, ESPN STAR Sports will maintain exclusive broadcast rights for all FA Cup matches, from Round 1 to the Final; The FA Community Shield and all Senior and Under-21 England Team home matches, including the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship qualifiers played at home and all friendly matches. These matches will be broadcast to 20 markets across Asia including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea as well as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, North Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. For the first time, ESPN STAR Sports will also have exclusive rights to present the content on digital media platforms which include www.espnstar.com, www.espnstar.com.cn, www.espnstar.com.tw, mobileESPN and the soon-to-be launched STAR Sports Mobile, in a reflection of the evolving trends in sports viewing.

________________________________

Whilst not actually stating that these matches will not be shown in Thailand, it doesn't mention Thailand in the list of countries.

It explains why there has been no coverage of the F.A. matches and indicates that there will be no coverage of the FA Cup later in the season, but Champions League matches should be broadcast.

If this was known nearly a year ago, why did UBC/True indicate that the Community Shield match would be shown?

This arrangement will last for 4 seasons. Have the Thai TV or True secured the rights for the FA Cup matches? Only time will tell.

Edited September 5, 2008 by delboy

[Jimjim]

Good spot. And I found an article which said some company called M-League had secured the rights for Thailand. Uh, who the hel_l are they? Anyone know? I guess that's why all those viewers who wanted to see the Community Shield were not able to do so. They bought the rights but they don't make events such as the Community Shield available to all of Thailand? Seems like it should be in the contract that those matches should be available all over the country. I have absolutely no clue to who M-League is and it would seem they should make them available on True or at least on Thai channels. Good luck for English commentary if they are a Thai company that is trying to focus on showing these games in Thai language. At least True still has English commentary for Premier League matches. Sucks for expats that some of these companies keep mucking about with coverage of such matches but it does make sense that they focus on the Thai audience as many Thais tell me they care more about seeing England matches than Thailand matches.

Article source:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/071109/2/w4ng.html

Edit: The only thing I've found on the internet about M-League all relates to Malaysia's top football league which they call M-League. Maybe they bought the rights for Thailand and then won't show them to spite Thailand? Of course not, just a funny thought. Anyway, anyone else's guess is as good as mine, and hopefully a lot better.

Edited September 7, 2008 by Jimjim

[delboy]

From a quick search I discovered that M-League Marketing Sdn Bhd (MLM) is a media rights marketing agency based in Kuala Lumpur. I assume that this means that it buys the rights for sporting events and then sells them to TV broadcasters.

Not only have they bought the media rights for the F.A. football matches, they also seem to have bought the rights for the 2010 World Cup. They already had the rights for the 2006 World Cup.

[vicksajnani]

So we wont be able to watch England home games in Thailand? that would suck,

how about the pubs showing on the satellite tv?

[bravingbangkok]

No you can they are on true sports, I watched Croatia being given a good lesson. Trust me True have got them no worries they will all be shown

[Jimjim]

Whoever shows them will have to buy them from the M-League company. It doesn't mean they won't be shown it means for the first match at least, M-League was not able to come to terms with any buyer. Probably by now it's sorted out.

[MSingh]

No you can they are on true sports, I watched Croatia being given a good lesson. Trust me True have got them no worries they will all be shown

The Croatia Game was away though..

[vicksajnani]

No you can they are on true sports, I watched Croatia being given a good lesson. Trust me True have got them no worries they will all be shown

The Croatia Game was away though..

The Andorra & Croatia was away and this is a home game. I haven't seen anything regarding this game being shown in Thailand. True is not showing the game. Even sent email to star sports with no replies so far. Does anyone else know if the pubs are showing the game?

[Jimjim]

Sounds like M-League, the company that holds the rights, will just maybe sell to a different channel every time. All FA games should be shown in Thailand as the rights for every game were paid for by M-League. So, perhaps this one will only be on a Thai broadcast channel. Just check the channels at the time of the match. It'll probably make it on TV as England matches are always on in Thailand. The Thais love the England team more than their own.

[vicksajnani]

Is this the first time that is happening in Thailand regarding the England home games?

[mrtoad]

For certain it will be on Super Sports which is a South African channel, but maybe not on Turdvisions or Channel Somchai. If you want to watch it, there will be plenty of bars that will be showing it.

[vicksajnani]

For certain it will be on Super Sports which is a South African channel, but maybe not on Turdvisions or Channel Somchai. If you want to watch it, there will be plenty of bars that will be showing it.

I checked the scheduled for SS, they are showing it, just depends which bar is showing it.

[Jimjim]

Yes but M-league has rights for home and away games all so they should be selling the home matches to somebody. Otherwise it's pointless to have the rights and the intention of the FA to sell the rights in any country should be that all matches are available all over the country. So where was the Kazak match on?

[thaimiller]

Just seen a promo for the FA cup and at the bottom, the ever increasing "not available in Thailand" comment.