It has been quite the month for football’s blossoming relationship with streaming. Although the two have been “going steady” for some time, recent announcements from two of the game’s biggest stakeholders have taken things to a whole new level.
Firstly, there was the announcement from Premier League Chief, Richard Masters that the world’s most popular sports league will be launching its own direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming platform in Singapore for the 2026/27 season.
The news did not come as a massive surprise. “Premflix” has been touted as a concept for a while now (although the spoil sports have gone with the more vanilla “Premier League Plus”) and trialling the service next season in Singapore makes a lot of sense as:
- It’s an affluent, English-speaking market, where football is the most popular sport and there are limited options in terms of sports broadcasters which means it’s a safe testing ground to work through any issues and develop a product that is fit for a wider roll out.
- The league’s decision to move production in-house for 2026/27 means they will have more control on broadcast outputs and be better positioned to service a streaming-first approach.
Interestingly, they are launching the new platform in partnership with StarHub, the existing rights holder in Singapore. This will, in part, be done to avoid legal issues as StarHub are two thirds of the way through a six-year deal but, by working with the incumbent broadcaster, this could pave the way for a similar redefining of rights partnerships in bigger markets, where the connection between league and broadcaster is almost symbiotic. For example, in the UK, despite dalliances with Amazon and TNT, it’s hard to imagine the Premier League without Sky Sports and vice versa.
