So next year Champions League How??

Now that Singtel has won the rights to screw the pub.. oops I mean to broadcast Champions League matches, I decided to check it out and find out how much it will cost for us the consumer to watch the games next year. Please click http://www.singtelfootballfrenzy.com/ for more details, but for those who lack time and effort, here is the break-down of the costs (Sat's conspiracy theory not included):

Plan 1: ON PROMOTION NOW (The tri-ticket)

Cost: $15.90 per month. (But 2 months free if you sign up now. 4 months free if you take mioHome which means getting the internet and home line, I doubt many will go for this)

Cost over the season: $159

What you get: All football access to your TV, Internet and Handphone. All matches, plus one 24hr football channel, repeats (they normally cost $3 per repeat) and the whole shenanigans.

Plan 2: Annual Ticket

Cost over the season: $156

What you get: All football access to TV and Internet. Makes no sense if you consider Plan 1 with 2 months free.

Plan 3: Single Match Ticket (Also known as Pay Per View)

Cost for whole season: $6 for group and QF matches.
$9 for SF matches
$12 for Final.
So I did the maths. Say you follow your team from Group to Final, that will cost you (6 x $6 + 2 x $6 + 2 x $9 + 1 x $12 = $78) This works out to $6 per month. But this only allows you to view your team's matches or if your team gets knocked out early, the glam games live only. So give and take your team goes all the way, but you want to watch some other big matches too. Let's put it as $120 for whole season.

What you get: Watch what you want only when you want it. But you will have to pay for the repeats!

Plan 4: Team Pass

Cost for whole season: You pay a flat fee of $20 for the whole year. And then get 10% off all Plan 3 prices. In other words, if you follow your team to the final you pay $70 instead of $78. But don't forget you will need to pay additional $20.

What you get: Full access to your team only. 10% off repeats also.

Additional Charges:

Minimum Charge per month of having a mioTV set: $16.05 (to rent the box)
Installation: $53.50 flat fee
If you want digital video recording: $10.70 per month
Second box rental: $5.35

So it's quite pointless to pay so much to have only the football package, so you're gonna end up getting the Supersaver English package ( http://mio.singtel.com/miotv/price-plan_new-supersaver-pack.asp ) which gives you about 20 channels for $19.90 per month.

So who should take what? Well for starters you have to decide if you want to watch the games at all. You can stream online from sites like Asiaplate TV and www.myp2p.eu to watch but nothing's guaranteed. The quality and commentary might be bad.

For the person who loves football and wants to watch as much as possible (probably Prak, myself, Sat), I think Plan 1 will suit us best. Cost wise it's the most competitive and we like to watch all the different matches so no point we take the other plans. This plan also applies to people like Riz and Puvan because your family has fans of other Champions League teams so Plan 1 allows you to watch as much as possible.

For those who barely have time to watch (Roobz, SK, Vana, PP) I suggest get Plan 3. You save the most if you do that.

For those who can fly to and fro overseas as and when they want plus they live in landed property (Harry, Chan, Anan), get Plan 1.

For the rest of you, perhaps you can consider online streaming.

Don't forget the installation costs and what not by the way. Let's hope Starhub slashes prices of its existing sports group from $25 per month currently. I doubt that will happen though. Sigh.. Everyone it's time to bend over and get your medicine.. Open wide.. And I'm not talking about your mouth..