Euro 2024 game hit by ‘transmission interruptions’, Singapore fans miss out on action
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SINGAPORE – Two “transmission interruptions” during the Germany-Hungary match that started at midnight June 20 Singapore time resulted in football fans here missing out on some action at Euro 2024.
A number of StarHub, Singtel and Mediacorp customers were hit by issues early on in the first half of the game.
Those who subscribed to StarHub’s service had their televisions and devices showing a screen that said: “Transmission interrupted. Fault at source – We are working with our partners to restore service as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
The disruption lasted for about 30 minutes, with viewers on all three platforms missing the first goal in the 22nd minute by Germany’s Jamal Musiala.
A similar disruption occurred near the end of the second half and transmission resumed more than five minutes later.
Germany won 2-0 and the hosts and Group A leaders are through to the knockout stages after two victories in as many games.
Angry and frustrated users took to social media to complain about the broadcasters’ services, with hundreds of comments posted on their Facebook pages.
StarHub user Gilbert Teo, a 33-year-old account director, told The Straits Times: “Very disappointing and it shows that the telcos are irresponsible.
“We pay quite a high price for Euros compared to other countries for sub-par services.”
Another user, Pauline Huang, posted: “Omg! Paid so much yet transmission interrupted! Picture quality is not good also, please do something about it!”
Singtel customer Philbert Lee said on social media: “Game just start then hang, after that no sound no scoreboard, then after a while whole game can’t watch... Refund the money!”
Fasha Samsudin commented on Starhub’s Facebook page: “Half an hour of live gameplay gone. One goal missed. This is 2024. Stop saying source problem. Refund all your paying customers. Disgraceful.”
All 51 matches for Euro 2024 are broadcast live on StarHub, Singtel and Mediacorp’s mewatch, with users paying an early-bird price of $88 and $108 after that.
All three are showing the June 14-July 14 tournament via SPOTV, a South Korean pay TV network that has acquired the broadcast rights for Singapore and Malaysia.
Responding to queries from ST, StarHub said in a statement that “this issue originated from the source feed and affected all providers in Singapore and the region”.
“We have contacted the channel partner, requested immediate action and enhanced measures to meet quality standards. We expect them to address this issue promptly and prevent future disruptions.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank our viewers for their understanding and patience.”
Similarly, Singtel also added in a statement that it is “working with the content provider to ascertain the cause of the issue and to resolve it”, while Mediacorp said separately it is also working closely with SPOTV to ensure “similar incidents don’t happen again”.
SPOTV chief executive Lee Choong Khay said: “The interruption was caused by an issue with our transmission partner’s backup system. Due to some technical errors, there was a delay in switching over to the backup system when the primary transmission failed.
“This delay was also due to the failure to activate the contingency plans that were in place.”
Lee added that SPOTV has since “tightened processes” to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. There were still some users who had such issues for the Slovenia-Serbia match on June 20 and posted complaints on StarHub’s Facebook page, but some others could watch the whole game via the broadcaster’s app.
Football fans in Singapore have been affected by a number of broadcast issues in recent years. In August 2023, some StarHub customers were hit by disruption problems when they tried to tune in to the opening weekend of the English Premier League.
Some were unable to watch part of the Arsenal-Nottingham Forest match on their devices and set-top boxes, while others missed the entire game which kicked off at 8pm after a half-hour delay at the Emirates.
Its subscribers were also hit by similar issues in the 2022-23 season
The opening weekend had customers complaining about issues such as broadcast lags, while the final day was plagued by a “satellite transmission issue” that caused some fans to miss 25 minutes of action, while the wrong matches were also shown on TV.
Other local broadcasters Singtel and Mediacorp had also been hit by disruptions and glitches for football broadcasts previously.
