Ordinary Gweilo

Least surprising news of the week is that Cable TV is dropping ESPN and Star Sports from the middle of next month. Oh, sorry, what I meant to say was that Now Broadband TV has beaten off stiff competition from Cable TV to secure ESPN and Star Sports (more in the SCMP if you are a subscriber).

Last time Cable TV won exclusive rights to the English Premier League they dropped ESPN soon afterwards. Although ESPN made brave noises about coming back to Hong Kong quickly, in fact they couldn’t find another platform, and reappeared on the Cable TV lineup once they had the exclusive EPL rights. Now that deal has expired, and so has the dysfunctional partnership between the two companies.

The version of ESPN and Star Sports on Now Broadband TV will be one without the EPL coverage, and although they do have some other football rights I can’t see it being very attractive to most people. I suppose it depends how much they charge per month.

There is also some doubt about whether the channels will have a dual soundtrack (English and Cantonese). I don’t actually know whether the Now setup provides this facility or not, but I’d be surprised if they couldn’t offer it. If they can’t, I forsee a big problem.

[Thanks to Denis for tipping me off about this announcement. I very rarely buy the SCMP these days]

It seems like everyone has been complaining about the Euro 2004 coverage from Cable TV, so we just have to hope that they have take note of these comments and do something better for the EPL. There’s certainly going to be more games, but will they still have the dancing girls and the idiotic comedians?