Ms Campbell may be pleased to note that all upcoming 27 Rugby World Cup matches will be telecast ?live? on either ESPN (Channel 23) or STAR Sports (Channel 24) ? including all matches featuring New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the defending champions England. The New Zealand vs Portugal match on Sept 15 was telecast on a same day delayed basis due to the ?live? telecast of Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic: Semifinal.

With regard to Mr Lai?s comments on StarHub?s Formula One (F1) Grand Prix coverage, we would like to inform him that all qualifying rounds were aired before the race, and viewers can expect the same for the entire F1 season. The Belgian Grand Prix qualifying round that was mentioned in Mr Lai?s letter was actually telecast on STAR Sports at midnight on Sept 16, while the race was aired ?live? at 8pm on the same day. We understand from our channel partner ? ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) ? that the qualifying round was aired on a four-hour delayed basis due to the ?live? telecast of Rugby World Cup ? Wales vs Australia which commenced at 8.55pm on Sept 15. We are glad to let Mr Lai know that both the qualifying round and race day of the upcoming F1 Japanese Grand Prix on Sept 29 and 30 will be aired ?live? on STAR Sports. For telecast details of upcoming Grand Prix races and highlights, viewers can refer to StarHub?s Online Programme Guide at www.starhub.com/cabletv.

Mr Long raised some concerns over the telecast of the Spanish Primera Liga match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. As a result of a breakdown in negotiations between the international rights holders of the Spanish Primera Liga matches, the distribution rights of selected Spanish Primera Liga matches were not made available in many countries worldwide, including Singapore.

On the Champions League, ESS has informed StarHub that ESPN and STAR Sports will air over 300 hours of matches and programmes, including a total of 47 ?live? matches. Every match week, viewers can catch the one-hour highlight show on ESPN?s UEFA Champions League Highlights on Thursdays, and highlights of all matches on ESPN?s UEFA Champions League Extra on Sundays. In addition, fans can also watch the UEFA Champions League Magazine Show every Saturday to find out more about the players and teams on and off the pitch.

In response to Mr Long and Mr Gan?s comments on StarHub?s impending adjustment to our Sports Group subscription fee, we would like to clarify that the costs of telecast rights of virtually all sports programming have escalated tremendously worldwide in recent years. As such, the impending rate increase for StarHub Digital Cable?s Sports Group is only to cover part of the increased cost while we continue to seek other possible revenue streams, such as advertising, to cover the rest of it. The cost increases are due to factors beyond the influence of anyone in Singapore. While other pay-TV operators in countries such as Malaysia and Hong Kong have already raised sports subscription prices, StarHub has decided not to introduce an immediate adjustment to its sports prices but to implement it only in October. This is in spite of the fact that we are already paying higher prices for all our sports content previously and now.

Our challenge is to balance the desires of various sports audience segments against the rising costs by operating within a reasonable cost structure that keeps prices as low as possible. Moving forward, our customers can look forward to the ?live? telecasts of racing events (Chinese Grand Prix, Brazilian Grand Prix), soccer matches (Euro Qualifiers, International Friendlies, Barclays Premier League, Spanish Primera Liga), tennis events (ATP Masters), football matches (NFL) and baseball matches (Major League Baseball) on StarHub?s dedicated sports channels.

StarHub presently offers eight dedicated sports channels. We have acquired the rights to carry sports channels packaged by regional broadcasters and these channels are ESPN, STAR Sports, Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2 and Cricket Channel. It is important to note that because these channels are broadcast regionally, the programming schedules are set by these broadcasters, not by StarHub. In addition to the regional channels, we also provide local sports fans with even more sporting action, by acquiring sports content for telecast on our three self-packaged sports channels ? SuperSports, SuperSports Plus and Football Channel. StarHub has plans to offer more content to non-football sports fans in Singapore, and more details will be announced in the near future. We thank Ms Campbell, Mr Lai, Mr Long and Mr Gan for their feedback and look forward to their continued support.

Caitlin Fua (Ms)
Corporate Communications Manager
StarHub