S.League to livestream Balestier-Warriors game tonight

SINGAPORE - Buoyed by the positive response to their maiden efforts at livestreaming a Great Eastern-Hyundai S.League match, the Football Association of Singapore has decided to livestream the Balestier Khalsa-Warriors FC match which will be held at the Toa Payoh Stadium on Tuesday night (Feb 28) at 7.30pm.

Last Sunday (Feb 26), the livestreaing of the Great Eastern Community Shield clash between Albirex Niigata and Tampines Rovers at the National Stadium, drew close to 24,000 viewers online. Around 14,000 people watched the game on their computers and mobile devices as it was being streamed live, while more than 9,000 people caught the game online after it ended, as a delayed telecast.

Combining this with the 15,480 people who turned up at the National Stadium to catch the game, it means that the game drew almost 40,000 spectators in total.

As FAS interim president Lim Kia Tong told TODAY: "(The figures) augur very well for the S.League. This shows that the S.League is not dying and it’s beginning to be more active. On our part, we have to keep looking for ways to generate awareness and interest in the league again.”

This is why the FAS has selected tonight's game between Balestier and Warriors for livestreaming.

The Tigers' pre-season signing of three Myanmar internationals - forwards Aung Kyaw Naing, Nanda Lin Kyaw Chit and Kyaw Zayar Win - has already generated a healthy level of interest both in the over-200,000-strong Myanmar community, as well as in back in the footballers' home country.

Myanmar fans have already been down to the club's training sessions to meet the players, as evidenced by photos on the Myanmar Football 12th Player Facebook page (above), while the trio and their Balestier teamates went down to Peninsula Plaza over the weekend, a favourtie gathering point of Myanmar workers in Singapore, to generate awareness of tonight's game, and hand out flyers.

FAS assistant director for commercial and business development Rikram Singh told TODAY that the livestreaming of tonight's game aims not only to reach out to the Myanmar nationals in Singapore who may not be able to make it to Toa Payoh Stadium tonight, but also to Myanmar football fans back in the football-crazy country which has a population of 60 million. "It's all about reaching out to new fan bases and creating more awareness of our league," he said. 

The FAS' ability to livestream matches this season was made possible by the Live Streaming Platform project under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President’s Initiatives Programme, which aims to help member associations (MAs) strengthen the game in their respective countries.

Streaming takes place on the website of video streaming specialists mycujoo, AFC’s partner for the projects, where FAS will have a dedicated channel (mycujoo.tv/ch/320) to show the games. 

The matches will be available as video replays after the game ends.

Last July, Bhutan became the first country to embrace this initiative, which was introduced as part of the AFC’s inaugural Media Management and Marketing Workshop programme. Other MAs to have joined since are Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Taiwan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Oman, Laos, India, the Philippines, Afghanistan and Jordan.

TODAY understands that the plan is to stream one S.League game per week, with an eye to ramping it up to every match next season once staff are familiar with the process and set-up.

*Tonight's game is at 7.30pm, which would be 6pm Myanmar time.