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Scots out to woo Asia

SINGAPORE — Scottish football is the latest European league to beat a path to Asia in an attempt to capture a slice of the huge audience that traditionally feeds on a diet of English Premier League, supplemented by La Liga and Serie A.

Without the Old Firm Rangers v Celtic clashes in the SPL, its TV ratings plummeted to 1.4 million viewers for the first 21 games of the 2012-2013 edition in Britain. However, the merger of all professional leagues under the SPFL helped Scottish football turn a corner. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Without the Old Firm Rangers v Celtic clashes in the SPL, its TV ratings plummeted to 1.4 million viewers for the first 21 games of the 2012-2013 edition in Britain. However, the merger of all professional leagues under the SPFL helped Scottish football turn a corner. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

SINGAPORE — Scottish football is the latest European league to beat a path to Asia in an attempt to capture a slice of the huge audience that traditionally feeds on a diet of English Premier League, supplemented by La Liga and Serie A.

In the past year, helped by broadcast rights specialists MP & Silva, the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has been able to penetrate into new territories, namely China, India and Middle East.

The China deal, according to reports, reaches 60 million online subscribers and is worth £20 million (S$42 million) over 10 years.

But Scottish football is no stranger to Asia as its matches are regularly beamed to countries such as Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

Its appeal, though, took a hit after Glasgow Rangers were liquidated under a mountain of debts two years ago and were later re-admitted to play in the lowest and fourth tier (Scottish third division) under new owners.

Without the annual Old Firm Rangers-Celtic clashes in the Scottish Premier League, its TV ratings also plummeted to 1.4 million viewers for the first 21 games of the 2012-2013 edition in Britain alone, compared with 3.8 million the previous year.

It finally turned a corner after the merger of all the professional football leagues under the SPFL before the 2013-2014 season, and with Rangers winning promotion the same year, viewership doubled.

Speaking from Glasgow, SPFL chief executive office Neil Doncaster told TODAY the merger has boosted SPFL’s efforts to up its international appeal, especially in Asia.

“We are working towards rebuilding our broadcast presence around the globe since 2012, after Rangers left the top division,” said Doncaster.

“We’re positive we’re on the right track now in the new SPFL era, and are working on building our international footprint with our partnership with MP & Silva.”

New TV deals in Singapore and Vietnam, added Englishman Doncaster, show that there remains huge demand for and interest in the Scottish game across the globe.

“I am sure the merger (of the Scottish football leagues) helped — as did the newly created playoffs, which have undoubtedly increased the end-of-season drama and excitement of the league,” said the Devon native. “Our objective is to make the SPFL rights as valuable as possible across the globe. Our new TV rights deal in Singapore with SingTel (this season) is further evidence of this being achieved.”

Peter Hutton, MP & Silva’s chief executive, is bullish on the Scottish game’s future, especially with the expected return of Rangers into top-flight football. The company, which began operations in Singapore in 2004 and has twin headquarters here and in London, has grown into a global force for sports media rights that includes the EPL and World Cup matches outside the Republic.

Said Hutton: “We’re seeing interest in territories where there’s robust consumption for football content, and we believe there is still potential to build on this positive result, thanks to the excellent production quality and the unique atmosphere of the Scottish football games.”

But TV isn’t enough because EPL, La Liga and Serie A clubs regularly conduct pre-season tours and even run tournaments in Asia to strengthen the loyalty of fans in the region.

Italian giants Juventus are the latest to go on this pilgrimage and will play a Singapore Selection at the new National Stadium on Saturday.

“It is fair to say in the past we haven’t done that, but it is something we intend to do with our broadcast partners and MP & Silva to make this a possibility going forward. It is very important we have a genuine presence in Asia and a tournament provides a very good way of doing it as opposed to simply doing TV,” said Doncaster.

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