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Tim Noonan

Occasionally, I get inquiries from readers asking me when a certain golf event is on TV, maybe a big college Bowl game or even a World Cup match.

The truth of the matter is, I don't know.

Apparently, I should know what is on TV because I work in the sports media field. But that means little these days.

What I know is this: It seems the more options we have, the less we have. Because we have two large cable companies going head to head, everything is in play now. Every sporting property worth a damn is open for negotiations regardless of what network has 'exclusive' rights.

What exclusive means to networks like ESPN and Star Sports is exclusive to everywhere in Asia EXCEPT Hong Kong.

The reason, of course, is we are so special and so darn affluent that we don't mind paying again for something we thought we had already paid for.

It all started a few years back when ESPN and Star Sports left Hong Kong Cable for Now TV. Cable subsequently bid for the rights to broadcast the coveted English Premier League (EPL), which was on ESPN Star at the time.

The people that run the EPL would  go to extreme lengths if they knew money was to be made out of it. Naturally, they salivated at the idea of additional revenue. They agreed to de-link the EPL from the ESPN Star package in Hong Kong and sell it to Cable.

The figures vary but the most quoted numbers are between HK$500 million and HK$800 million. The genie was out of the bottle now. We should have known then that sports TV around here would never be the same.

Rights to broadcast some of the world's biggest events in Hong Kong have been taken away from the traditional networks and I would venture a guess that you don't even know it yet.

You figured that once Now TV acquired the rights to the EPL, for a number reputed to be in the range of HK$1.5 billion for three years, that it would seem like everything was under one roof, what with ESPN Star, the Golf Channel and Golf Tour network also on Now, what else would you need?

I'll tell you what you need. You need a quick primer, so here we go. Yes, the EPL is on Now and since they have a number of dedicated channels they can show every single match.

What they cannot show is the half-time studio show from John Dykes and his crew on ESPN. They show parts of his pre-game show as well as a post-game highlight show much later and that's it.

If English-speaking viewers want some sort of analysis with their half-time highlight package, they are out of luck.

But maybe you don't care about the EPL, perhaps your game is tennis and you were looking forward to watching next week's US Open on Star Sports, where it has been for years.

Well, forget it.

While everyone else in Asia will be watching it on Star Sports, unless you have Hong Kong Cable you won't be watching it here as they now own the rights to it to go along with the French Open.

And golfers who subscribed to the Golf Channel and Golf Tour Channel are now over par. The upcoming FedEx Cup as well as the President's Cup belong to Hong Kong Cable as well as every PGA tournament with the exception of the four majors.

So if you can get the British Open and US Open on ESPN and the Masters on Star Sports, why are you paying HK$75 a month for Now's golf package?

To watch the Scandinavian Masters? Granted, you get the PGA Championship, number four on the major scale, and the Ryder Cup every two years. But is that enough?

Basketball fans may have noticed that the coverage on ESPN in Hong Kong was very suspect during this year's NBA play-offs.

All we got was the horrible Eastern Conference match-ups while the Western showdowns, including the dynamic Phoenix-San Antonio series and Golden State's huge upset of Dallas, were nowhere to be seen unless you had Hong Kong Cable.

And now here comes the biggest shocker.

The last Rugby World Cup had good ratings on Star Sports here in Hong Kong, particularly with the legion of expats.

Many sports pubs reported record sales during the final match between England and Australia. No wonder Star was eager to show it again in Asia and they will, everywhere except Hong Kong. The rights to that now belong to Cable TV and it has a number of aficionados, not to mention bar owners, fuming.

Cable will be getting the feed from the International Rugby  Board broadcast and at this time is not sure if it includes pre-game shows or highlights packages.

It's all a little unclear, and here we are less than three weeks away from the opening match.

'We plan on having a dedicated channel to show every single match, so I think our coverage will be fine,' said Garmen Chan, vice-president for external affairs at Cable TV.

I'm sure you're not happy about this fragmented sports schedule. I know I'm not. But get used to it because it looks like it is here to stay.

'We will still strive to bring the best sports programming to Hong Kong,' said  Chan.

Ironically, because Cable TV lost the EPL they can spend the money to do this. Because Now has the EPL, they can't.

And you?

Well, if you're a fan of many sports, you have lots of choice but also little choice. Get ready to spend.

