The news is out that our local pay-TV providers, Singtel and Starhub, have finally secured the broadcast rights to the World Cup. Much hand-wringing has happened over this when, for months, Singapore football fans did not know if we could see the 2010 World Cup while our Malaysian counterparts could.Losing out to our northern neighbors can be a massive loss of face, and already we were wilting under the taunts of "Eh, bro! Come to my house in JB lah! We got World Cup!"
But once the euphoria of hearing that we got the rights to FIFA's biggest event wore off (I estimate about 12.3 seconds), Singapore fans reacted to the asking price of watching all 64 matches on pay-TV: a whopping S$70.62 (US$46) for early birds, and S$94.16 (US$63) for late birds, on top of the base charges if you were not already subscribing to pay-tv. Full Story
