Frustration as Hong Kong TV viewers miss out
Hong Kong fans were left in the dark as the Indian Premier League got under way in sensational fashion yesterday with a glitzy opening ceremony followed by New Zealand's hard-hitting batsman Brendon McCullum continuing the fireworks by powering his way to the highest individual score in a Twenty-20 match.
'Why are Singaporeans so lucky?' asked Sanjeev Kumar, who pointed out that StarHub in Singapore was airing all 59 matches live on its recently launched cricket channel. StarHub charges S$25.68 (HK$147) per month to subscribers in a packaged deal that includes other channels.
'Singapore cricket lovers can watch the Indian Premier League but in Hong Kong, we cannot watch this exciting tournament at all,' Kumar protested.
McCullum hammered an unbeaten 158 off 73 deliveries, including 13 sixes and 10 fours, to help the Saurav Ganguly-led Kolkota Knight Riders beat the Bangalore Royal Challengers by 140 runs.
The action has also been blacked out on other media in Hong Kong due to a boycott of the IPL by international news agencies, who are up in arms over restrictions placed on the distribution of photographs.
While StarHub has struck a deal with World Sports Group - which along with Sony Television paid US$918 million for the IPL TV rights for 10 years - apparently Hong Kong providers like Now TV and Cable TV have shown little interest in broadcasting the event.
