Calling all Serie A fans in Singapore!

[nardo]

Hi everyone, and especially SERIE A FANS IN SINGAPORE! My name is Farah and I'm new here so I hope you guys don't mind me starting this thread. I started it in one of the offtopic sections but it didn't gather any responses so I wasn't sure if that was the right place to post but I hope this one is.

The lack of Serie A coverage in Singapore is an issue I'm very passionate about right now and I'm looking for as much support as I can get in trying to get Serie A football back on our cable TV.

I've spoken to SCV and the word is "there are no immediate plans" to broadcast Serie A... and I'm like, go to hell! You made me pay MORE for sports channels because of bloody EPL and now you're cancelling my Serie A??!! But of course, this is just the trained speech from the call centre staff so the point is that we need to get answers from the Management of SCV - it's ridiculous that the season's started and "negotiations are still ongoing", as they claim... and in the meantime, while they're slacking in these supposed "negotiations", WE are still paying their salaries blindly!!!

Nevertheless, in spite of the "authoritarian" nature of organisations in Singapore in general, I do believe if enough of us make a hell of a lot of noise - and I'm talking letters to the Straits Times forum, getting The New Paper to cover this story, etc - then we will be able to get our Serie A coverage... SOON.

So start by bombarding the SCV hotline with calls and screwing them up for depriving us of OUR football!!!!! Keep writing to the Straits Times until they publish our letters!!! Call The New Paper hotline!! We can get Serie A back on our TV - and our strength is in our numbers - with some pressure, SCV will have to get off their inefficient asses and "negotiate" before the season actually ends!!

To write to the Straits Times forum, email stforum@sph.com.sg and include your full name as it appears in your IC, your address and a telephone contact number. If your letter doesn't get published in the actual paper, check the online forum (from 3 Sep) http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum to see if it gets published there!


To write to The New Paper, visit http://newpaper.asiaone.com/

Click on the link on the left-hand side bar that says "Got a story? Email us". Or call them at 1800 733 4455.

You can also email the sports journalists directly at npsports@sph.com.sg

We have about a week until the next round of matches - so the harder we work on this now, the more pressured SCV will be to broadcast our games!! ;)

[toronto_soccer]

welcome to serie a forum farah, i hope somehow you get your games.

[Darran]

Hi, I am a Serie A supporter and I have been rather displeased as well, I would support you definitely, I am not sure why 'negotiations are going on as well', I hope to see you posting more often here. As it is, news about Lazio in English is scarce, fortunately I have a website dedicated to Lazio in english. What team do you support btw?

[nardo]

Thanks toronto_soccer! ;)

And Darran, I'm a Juventus fan. :)

I don't know if you've read but The New Paper did take up the story yesterday (4 Sep) - http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/sports/story/0,4136,94047,00.html? - so now it's up to us to flood StarHub with calls and emails demanding they resolve this situation. Can you imagine they weren't even negotiation anymore before TNP called them? :mad2:

Anyways, I've started an online petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/seriea05/petition.html

Sign it and tell everyone you know about it! In the meantime, flood StarHub 1633 with calls and email customercare@starhub.com demanding our Serie A coverage back! We can do this, as long as we persist! :)

[Darran]

I have signed the petition! Lets hope it get noticed.

I for one do not watch the EPL regularly, I follow the Serie A. Tactical? Yes but Boring? Not in the least, lets not forget that Serie A only fell short of the EPL by 27 goals last season. I sent an email once and here was what they said.

Dear Darran

Thank you for your email on 26 August 2005.

We are sorry for the non-telecast to the previous matches of this season's
Italian Serie A. We would explain that we are in the midst of negotiations
for the telecast rights to the series. Unfortunately, we are unable to
confirm if the telecast will be available at this moment. Nonetheless, we
are aware of the interests and popularity in the series and assure that we
would continue our efforts in providing the telecast. Meanwhile, we would
seek your patience and kind understanding.

Thank you for writing in with your enquiry. We look forward to your
continued support and wish you a good week.


Yours sincerely

Mabel Lim
Customer Care - Programming

They already negotiated before the article on the newpaper

How will SCV see this petition?

[nardo]

I have signed the petition! Lets hope it get noticed.

I for one do not watch the EPL regularly, I follow the Serie A. Tactical? Yes but Boring? Not in the least, lets not forget that Serie A only fell short of the EPL by 27 goals last season. I sent an email once and here was what they said.



They already negotiated before the article on the newpaper

How will SCV see this petition?

They did negotiate before the article in the paper but negotiations fell through and they had stopped negotiating. Only after the story appeared in the paper did they make a second attempt at negotiations again. :)

Nevertheless, about the petition, I will forward the link as well as a hard copy to SCV when we have reached a considerable number of signatures - I'm hoping (against all hope) about 200-300 by the end of the week.

[Darran]

I posted the link on my blog, and maybe we should continue to advertise, letting all Singaporeans know about this petition so they can help out. We have already reached 92 now, so lets hope we will be able to reach that target

[nardo]

Thank you so much, Darran! I've forwarded the link to everyone I know - you do that too and hopefully we'll hit our numbers soon! We're at 161 and counting! ;)

[Darran]

How long are you planning to have this petition up before submitting it to SCV?

[nardo]

The petition's at 223 signatures now and I've already forwarded it to StarHub, but it's obvious that they don't care from their response in the ST online forum on Friday. Here:

http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,339578,00.html?

Reply to the ST forum - show StarHub how dissatisfied we are with this bullshxt reply! :mad2:

I've just emailed ST my reply so hopefully it gets noticed some time soon. :rolleyes:

[Darran]

This is really disturbing, they got the money to broadcast other leagues but they do not have the money for the Serie A? What is this? I am sure viewers would rather watch the Italian Serie A than one of the scottish, french and english first division

[nardo]

I totally agree with you Darran!

My letter to the ST forum was published online today:

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,340587,00.html?

But that's not the most important thing - we NEED StarHub to see for themselves just how many of us there are! So keep writing to the ST forum, The New Paper (npsports@sph.com.sg) and StarHub and make them LISTEN to us! Stop giving those ridiculous standard answers! Pile on the pressure and make them buckle and give us our Serie A again!

[Darran]

Yes thank you for your update on the situation, I hope you will continue to press on, so will I. And hopefully 1 day, starhub will finally listen to their customers

[nardo]

I apologise for not updating here for so long, but I reckon some have also seen the story developing in The New Paper.

Three days ago, there was a story on MediaCorp carrying Italian Serie A matches. This story is here:

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/sports/story/0,4136,94849,00.html?

And in today's New Paper (23 Sep), there is another coverage on the online petition. So encourage your friends/family etc to buy The New Paper today and sign the online petition. Things have been moving along a little better than we'd earlier expected, and if we shout loud enough, StarHub will hear us and they will have to respond!

Keep up with the petition! :)

[Darran]

The online petition is still with the original? And I am glad things are moving, our pressure might have payed off, but lets all not give up, keep pressurising starhub, but mediacorp did the right thing at least by showing a delayed telecast.

[nardo]

Yes, the petition is still at the same link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/seriea05/petition.html

We have nearly 600 signatures now. Keep spreading the word around about it. Imagine this - an average of $40 a month in cable subscription X 600 people is $24,000 A MONTH for Starhub. Do they deserve this money from us?! :mad2:

[Darran]

Have you forwarded that petition to Starhub?

I hope they realise what we want, and bring Serie A back to Singapore

[nardo]

Yes, StarHub is aware of the petition. ;)

Ernest's story will be in today's New Paper (14 October), with an update on the situation with StarHub and their cheating ways. :rolleyes:

[Darran]

Do you have the exact link?

[nardo]

Here you go:

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/sports/story/0,4136,95961-1129391940,00.html?

[Darran]

OMG, this is nonsense.

Cheaper deals and they still rejected it, they don't give a damn about us customers.

They only want the EPL, sadly that is why Singapore football is declining