Hong Kong – Executives from England’s highly lucrative Premier League soccer have been visiting Asia as closed bidding for the three football seasons 2010-2012 looms on the horizon. Premier League’s Director of Media Operations and International Broadcasting Phil Lines told Television Asia Plus that they are considering launching their own channel. “We will probably launch our own TV channel,” Lines said following a more cautious reply from his colleague Paul Molnar. “Especially with the entry of telcos into the TV market, there is a need for a Premier League channel.” Lines cited the example of StarHub in Singapore which, having paid an estimated US$150 million for the three-season rights to the Premier League, failed to reach an agreement with ESPN STAR Sports for that network’s coverage of the football. StarHub Digital Cable viewers have instead been treated to Premier League pre- mid- and post-match analysis from a Goal TV team in Dubai. Many viewers say they much preferred the ESS offering. Asked whether he thought being outbid by StarHub had killed SingTel mioTV’s pay-TV aspirations, Lines said, “Hindsight is a great thing,” adding that there were doubts that SingTel’s service would have been ready in time for the start of the 2007 season. “But it doesn’t seem to have dented SingTel’s commitment to TV in the long-term, and their interest in our product.” The cost of international rights to Premier League has near enough doubled at three-yearly intervals, from 180 million pounds (US$285 million), to US$476 million, to US$992 million for 2007-2009. Molnar said that Asia accounts for 30 percent of that total. “Our biggest single market outside of the UK for PL rights is Hong Kong, with Singapore not far behind.”