ESS loses Premier League in major Asian markets

ESPN Star Sports has lost the next round of English Premier League broadcasting rights in Singapore, China and Thailand and had to raise its bid quite a bit to retain the rights for Malaysia and Indonesia, an industry source told Ashwin Pinto of Indian Television. ESS also managed to get the rights for Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei. Pay TV operator Starhub won in Singapore, UBC outbid five others to win in Thailand and Guangdong Soccer channel won against six bidders in China. In Japan, Yes TV won and Hong Kong's PCCW won the EPL rights for the Special Administrative Region.