Eleven Sports to axe 10 staff members

SINGAPORE — Eleven Sports Network’s (ESN) decision to drop the English Premier League (EPL) from its offerings will see the company letting go 10 employees from its Singapore office at Infinite Studios.

Mr Shalu Wasu, ESN managing director, told TODAY that the staff members are mainly from the Eleven Plus Channel, a channel on Singtel TV to show live EPL matches — and includes both full-timers and freelancers. The streaming solutions provider, which was founded in 2015, had about 30 full-and part-time staff before the internal restructure.

Mr Wasu said the period “has been an intense time” for him.

“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.”

News of ESN’s move to end its three-year EPL deal with Singtel after one season had emerged last Friday, prompting concerns among some employees that the developments could affect jobs, and the firm’s long-term sustainability in Singapore.

This is because EPL is hugely popular here, as compared with other football content and sports offered on ESN such as the Italian Serie A, Fifa World Cup qualifiers, International Table Tennis Federation Championships and Fina World Championships.

Mr Wasu stressed that ESN is here to stay for the long-term.

He said: “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 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.”