International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has maintained its future in Singapore remains secure after deciding to drop its coverage of club football competition the English Premier League and shed around a third of its employees in its local office.
In June 2016, Eleven signed a three-season sublicensing rights deal with pay-television operator Singtel to show live coverage of the Premier League in Singapore.
The deal commenced with the recently completed 2016-17 season and allowed Eleven to screen three live matches and three delayed broadcasts every week on its website and mobile application.
A new television channel on Singtel TV, Eleven Plus, was also formed to showcase the Premier League content but will now be discontinued.
Shalu Wasu, Eleven managing director, told Singapore newspaper Today the company will let go 10 of its roughly 30 employees in the Singapore office, mainly connected to the Eleven Plus channel.
“We’ve had to restructure the team, and took the decision to let go some of the team,” he said. “We tried to retain as many (as we could) and we were successful in doing so. Even now, our goal is to be nimble, be lean so that we have the strength to start growing and start thriving again.”
However, he added: “We’re here for good… we’ve gone through a difficult few weeks as we went through this and the restructuring. We are determined to build a successful streaming business not just for Singapore, but for the region.
“Some things worked for us, while some didn’t. We learnt an important lesson that we will use and execute as we grow our business.”