SINGAPORE - Frustrated and fuming football fans once again took to social media on Saturday (Aug 6) to complain about StarHub's broadcast service, after some subscribers experienced disruptions during English Premier League (EPL) game between Fulham and Liverpool.

The local telco is the broadcaster of the EPL in Singapore for six seasons.

Issues such as broadcast lags, low quality pictures and audio, as well as sudden freezes on their screens have been reported since the season's opening match on Friday, when Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 2-0.

Some customers also reported issues with logging in or linking their subscription to their devices.

The complaints come just a few weeks after customers reported similar malfunctions and lags during the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at the National Stadium on July 15.

User Moh San wrote on StarHub's Facebook page during Saturday's game: "This is crap. Keeps prompting error messages and when you're finally in, lags the hell out of everything and even rewinds and repeats every now and then. Quality is ridiculously bad every now and then as well."

Shazni Azmi had similar issues on Saturday, posting a screenshot of a message that reads "Player Error".

He said: "Please fix this. Been a terrible 20 mins so far. Audio doesn't sync, stream lags and buffers a lot. Same on both wifi and StarHub data. Sometimes it just stops and shows error screen. Incredibly frustrating."

Others also complained of slow customer service from the telco.

Remesh Kunnasegaran said that he had waited 40 minutes for technical service during the Arsenal and Crystal Palace match.

He wrote at about 1.45pm on Saturday: "Signed up for Premier+. Says that my Hub ID isn't linked to the subscription for which I have already paid for... was told that it would be resolved by this morning and nothing.

"I waited 1hr this morning again on the phone for technical service and got rerouted to billing cause there was too much phone traffic. Was told it would take 5 minutes to get to technical services and I have now been on the phone for another 30 minutes. Ridiculous service."

When contacted by The Straits Times, StarHub said: "We are aware that some of our TV+ customers are experiencing difficulties streaming the Liverpool vs Fulham game. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, and are working hard to resolve these issues urgently. IPTV service is not affected.”

Late on Saturday night, a spokesman posted an apology on the telco’s Facebook page.

He said: “We are deeply sorry to our Premier+ customers for the disruptive Premier League viewing experience on TV+ today. We understand the frustration felt by our customers, and acknowledge that we have fallen short of their expectations. Our customers deserve better from us – we assure them that we are taking this matter seriously and will spare no effort to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.”

While some fans were left frustrated on Saturday night, there were no such issues at the live screening of Liverpool’s draw with Fulham at Our Tampines Hub (OTH).

The screening was part of StarHub’s one-year partnership with OTH to broadcast matches at the facility. Many pubs, bars and coffeeshops do offer EPL screenings to patrons but this is the first time a local telco has offered screenings of the Premier League at a public facility, without the need to pay. The move appeared to be a hit. 

Over 200 people turned out at the venue to catch the Reds’ first game of the season. Decked out in Liverpool colours, they cheered and applauded as new signing Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah equalised for the team. 

Reds fan Noor Hidayat Latiff, at OTH with his wife and daughter, noted that the crowd was quite muted compared to previous viewings. But the 32-year-old said: “The vibes here are really good. Watching with everyone is very different from watching at home.”

Fellow fan Daniel Neo too enjoyed the experience.

The 28-year-old said: “I hope they show the next 37 matches so that Singaporeans can come and watch football as a community. 

“Although we support different teams, it’s great to see lots of people enjoying the match together.”