Scheduling live sports events is challenging for any broadcaster ("Sell football cable packages by season" by Mr Manickam Ananthakannan; last Thursday).

For example, multiple matches may be playing live concurrently, but broadcast slots for these games are limited.

Our approach is to cater to the majority of football fans, given channel constraints, the relative popularity of the teams and the importance of the match-ups to the overall competition.

We are pleased to inform Mr Ananthakannan that, effective this week, we have deployed an additional channel to broadcast more Uefa Champions League matches and up to three concurrent matches. This will allow us to cover all major matches, including those played by the Spanish sides.

Despite the increasing cost of securing broadcast rights to marquee sports franchises,

Singtel TV strives to deliver the best value to its football fans. Offering a la carte sports channels is simply too costly for broadcasters and customers alike.

As a package, our sports offerings give customers the best of everything: year-round viewing of live sports, sports news and highlights, best of matches and special programming.

We thank Mr Ananthakannan for his feedback and understanding.

Lian Pek (Ms)
Vice-President
Group Corporate Communications
Singtel