Exciting new local shows, an enhanced mobile and online experience, more HD matches, plus two new hosts to beef up the presenting squad

Singapore, 10 August, 2011 – mio TV today announced its plans for its second Barclays Premiere League season, promising an even bigger and better experience than ever before with new hosts, improved local programming and even more HD and 3D ‘live’ matches.

“We’ve carefully considered feedback from our customers and made changes in order to ensure that fans get the sort of coverage and programming they want,” said Mr Edward Ying, Chief, Multimedia at Singtel.

“Our hugely popular local programmes have been streamlined, we’ve brought in fresh-faced new hosts, made plenty of improvements to the overall viewing experience and dramatically enhanced our HD and 3D coverage.”

More ‘LIVE’ 3D and HD Coverage Than Ever Before

Do not miss a single game all season. As with last season, mio TV will show all 380 games ‘live’ and over 200 matches in High Definition. Channels 103 and 104 have been upgraded to HD, so that fans can now catch more games from the most popular league in the world in greater clarity. The on-demand service will also give fans the ability to re-live their favourite matches anytime. The interactive carousel (green and blue buttons on the remote control) has also been enhanced to provide a complete experience. Additionally, viewers can now look forward to the engaging experience of ‘being at the game’ with a live match in 3D on Channel 111 every month.

Brand New Local Programming, Exciting New Hosts

Like the Premier League teams who have been busy in the transfer market during the off-season, mio TV has also been very busy in this space. Singapore’s favourite football presenter John Dykes continues to bring his distinguished presentation style to our premier league broadcasts. And to keep things fresh, this season Soo Kui Jien and Dom Lau will be joined by two new hosts - Richard Lenton and Tara Rushton. This enhanced presenting team will re-launch two of mio Stadium’s popular local programmes, Samsung Score! and Tiger Goals on Sunday. In addition a brand new show titled Tiger It’s Your Shout! will kick off on Singapore screens on 15 August.

Sponsors Tiger and Samsung have renewed their partnership with mio Stadium this season, coming on board as title programme sponsors for Tiger It’s Your Shout!, Samsung Score! and Tiger Goals on Sunday. This continued engagement provides fans with a complete football offering, with dedicated segments and coverage plus exciting contests and prizes for their participation.

"As a proud sponsor of the new BPL season on mio TV, Tiger Beer together with Singtel will bring our football fans at Tiger Season Ticket Holder many new and exciting experiences. New integrated platforms on programmes like Tiger It’s Your Shout! and Tiger Goals on Sunday promise to bring special privileges to Tiger Beer fans,” said Ms Wong Mei Wai, Head of Marketing (Commercial), APBS.

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with Singtel to provide consumers with a holistic BPL experience, whether it is on-the-move or at home as they are able to view the matches across Samsung’s suite of Smart TVs, tablets and smartphones,” said Ms Irene Ng, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Asia Pte Ltd. “Additionally, Samsung’s Smart TV capabilities will allow BPL fanatics to enjoy truly immersive 3D matches made available on mio TV with vibrant colours, great clarity and depth. This is definitely a strong partnership between Samsung and Singtel to provide an exciting BPL experience for all.”

miostadium.com goes big with a new look, Fantasy Football, Star Bloggers and more

miostadium.com is sporting a brand new look, with a revamped homepage that will feature live scoring for every game being played. The site has been boosted to included live scores, fixtures and standings from La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga so that fans can get their fix on one comprehensive site.

miostadium.com continues to show ‘live’ matches on the website through 12-hour passes and annual passes. The site now also features some beautifully shot football documentaries, and an all-star line-up of Star Bloggers consisting of legends Fandi Ahmad and Abbas Saad, funnyman Neil Humphreys and some of Europe's best football book writers Simon Kuper and Ben Lyttleton.

The Fun Photos section offers an alternative look at football featuring WAGs (wives and girlfriends) from past and present, the original playboy George Best, David Beckham's hair through the ages, and to top it all off, footballers and their fetish for hair and tattoos.

Fans who fancy themselves to have a bit of Fergie, Wenger or Dalglish in them can put their skills to use in mio Stadium Fantasy Football, the ultimate fantasy league game in town.

Between August 13, 2011 to May 13, 2012, fans can select their players at http://www.miostadium.com/fantasyfootball and stand a chance to win $30,000 worth of prizes including a Samsung SMART TV, Samsung phones, tablets and prizes from Tiger Beer.

In addition, mio TV subscribers who finish in the top 10 at the end of the season will be rewarded with additional $1,000 cash.

Keeping You on Top of the Action – Wherever You Are

Fans catching the matches on their mobile devices will be pleased to know that the revamped BPL mobile application is now available on even more devices – iPhone, Android phone and iPad. The revamped interface has better access to new functions such as the Social Sharing function that allows viewers to share their thoughts on Facebook, Twitter and even send feedback to the mio Stadium show hosts.

Also available will be more video-on-demand clips, integrated alerts and an ‘Odds’ section. A new ‘F&B’ section allows fans to locate food and beverage outlets in the area showing mio Stadium content.

[See Annex 1: Synopsis of local programmes, Annex 2: Profiles of new hosts Richard Lenton and Tara Rushton]

About mio TV

mio TV is Singtel’s innovative digital pay TV service launched in July 2007. To date, the network has signed up over 300,000 customers.

mio TV offers a total of 68 channels, of which 20 are on-demand channels. Content on mio TV covers a wide range of genres as well as Singapore’s largest range of video-on-demand titles, with movies aired as early as three months after cinematic release and TV series as early as 24 hours after their US debut.

mio TV was the first to launch an interactive TV service that allows viewers to access real time information and participate in opinion polls via its mio Stadium channel.

Singtel is Asia’s leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice, data, and video services over fixed, wireless, mobile and Internet platforms.

Annex 1: Local Programmes on mio Stadium

Tiger It’s Your Shout! (Mondays 10pm to 11pm)

Monday nights will never be the same again as Singtel launches yet another programme based around the BPL on August 15, which as its name implies is THE place for football fans to relive the weekends action and feedback their thoughts live to the studio.

Joining Soo Kui Jien is yet another new signing to the mio Stadium ‘squad’ as Singtel further enhances its BPL presenting team. Joining the team from UK channel ESPN is Richard Lenton. As a UK BPL rights holder Richard’s time at ESPN means he is a hugely experienced BPL broadcaster and journalist, just the sort of character this controversial show needs.

Jien and Richard will be on-hand to debate the public’s feedback with our team of expert pundits and no topic is too hot to handle. This show also makes it easier than ever before for the viewer to get their voice heard. Viewers can use email, SMS, mio TV’s interactive portal, Facebook, and for the first time ever, from their mobile phones through Singtel’s BPL application.

Tiger Goals on Sunday (Sundays 11am to noon)

Singapore’s most comprehensive BPL review show ‘Tiger Goals On Sunday’ returns with a bang on August 14. Every Sunday morning at 11am, fans can expect a complete round-up of the week’s Saturday night action.

Despite being hugely popular during its first season the show is even bigger and better this time around as Singtel continues to improve its locally produced BPL shows. Joining Dom Lau is Australia-born actress/ model Tara Rushton who is all set to spice up your Sunday mornings.

As well as new presenting partnership the programme has a refreshed look and feel to kick start your Sunday morning with the best of the BPL. In addition, this season we will be bringing you even more action as ‘Tiger Goals On Sunday’ will be also showcasing selected highlights from some of Europe’s biggest leagues.

But, it’s not all about action, as always Tiger Goals On Sunday will be discussing the night’s biggest BPL stories in the company of Singapore’s largest pool of football pundits. Plus the viewer will get a chance to voice their opinion through our interactive portal in our ‘Tiger Extra Time’ segment. Each week by pressing the green button the viewer will get a chance to offer their opinion on a hot football topic via our dynamic voting poll.

Samsung Score! (Fridays 10pm to 11pm)

Like ‘Tiger Goals On Sunday’, ‘Samsung Score’ returns with a bang – a new host, a new set and a new sponsor means this programme will be bigger and better than ever.  Hosted by Richard Lenton, ‘Samsung Score’ will preview all of the weekend’s games with stats, facts plus breaking news direct from our UK sources and the very latest BPL press conferences. All this content will be reviewed by our Singapore-based pundits as they help the viewer predict the results of the upcoming games.

By using cutting-edge touch screen technology courtesy of our partners Samsung, our pundits will be able to get to the heart of the action by manipulating footage and statistics to make their predictions even more in depth and well-researched.

Annex 2: Profiles of Tara and Richard

Richard Lenton

TV presenter, roving reporter and magazine editor, Richard is an experienced writer and broadcaster. Last season Richard presented ‘Give It Up For Lenton’ on ESPN’s Talk of the Terrace show in the UK, as well as reporting on the station’s Premier League and FA Cup coverage.

Formerly with Sky Sports, Richard also worked as the Associate Editor of the award-winning Golf Punk magazine, before conceiving and launching Football Punk, a publication he successfully edited for 18 months until his permanent move into broadcasting with ESPN. During his varied career - which also includes a stint presenting live football in Ghana - Richard has interviewed some of the biggest stars in sport, including Lennox Lewis, Rio Ferdinand, Usain Bolt, Kevin Pietersen, Carlo Ancelotti and Nick Faldo.

Tara Rushton

Australian born actress, presenter and model Tara Rushton embarked on a career in the spotlight from the age of 15 after being scouted in a Cleo Magazine model search in Sydney Australia.

Throughout her high school and university years, she worked as a top model shooting international and local campaigns and many other leading fashion and consumer brands.

With a passion for writing and presenting, Tara completed a Diploma in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Media and Communications in Sydney before leaving Australia to pursue a career as a model internationally – Living and working in New York, London, Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and China.

Since relocating to Singapore, Tara has worked with the charity Habitat for Humanity, been nominated as one of Singapore’s ‘Most Inspiring Real Women’ in 2011 as part of International Women’s Day 2011, and served as an international Judge for Singapore Miss Earth for the past two years.