LettersCoronavirus pandemic: no live sports means Now TV subscribers are paying for nothing

Now TV needs to be held to account as to why it continues to charge customers for their sports channels at a time when there is no live sport across the world. We are living in unprecedented times and Now TV needs to start playing ball.

Channel packages are sold on the basis that the subscriber has access to certain live events each month. Currently, there are no live events. Nor are there likely to be for the foreseeable future.

A residential customer who subscribes to all the sports channels (including Now Sports and Fox Sports, providing access to the Premier League and other soccer leagues, and rugby and golf, among others) is likely to be spending almost HK$1,500 per month on subscriptions. Commercial subscribers could be paying 10 times more. At the moment, all they would be receiving in return are repeats after repeats, “Classics” and coverage of e-sports events.

Perhaps it is down to personal taste, but I do not want to pay a fee to watch someone sitting at home playing on their Xbox or PS4. This is not what I signed up for.

The very least Now TV could offer would be to freeze monthly costs for customers for all sports channels until such time as live sport returns, and then add these additional months on to the end of each contract. This way, nobody loses out.

Graeme Duncan, Wan Chai