If you have been watching Barclays Premier League matches on Astro recently, chances are that you would also see a ubiquitous “Escape” logo underneath the match score on the upper left side of the screen. That logo belongs to ESCAPE by Celcom, who recently announced its partnerships with Astro SuperSport and Fox Sports as broadcast sponsors of the Barclays Premier League.
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ESCAPE by Celcom is the telecommunications company’s online content distribution service, which was announced last August. Content on ESCAPE is curated to include long and short-length content formats for the needs of the modern mobile consumer who now consume content beyond the TV and into devices such as laptops, tablets and of course smartphones.
The partnership will see ESCAPE by Celcom airing live BPL matches that are aired on Astro SuperSport and Fox Sports in HD. Subscribers can also watch highlights of past matches and utilize ESCAPE’s “pause and play” feature, where content can be paused on one device and resume on another.
What’s surprising about the partnership, of course, is the fact that Astro has Astro On-the-Go, its own online content distribution service. With BPL one of the most profitable content assets around, wouldn’t Celcom be benefiting more from this partnership than Astro?
Not quite, according to Astro COO Henry Tan, who calls the partnership a “win-win collaboration”, and “signaling a positive development not only for the industry, but also for the Malaysian sports fans”.
Celcom CEO, Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, concurs. “Even as a major mobile telecommunications player in Malaysia, we recognised early on that we cannot be competitive within an “ego-system”; rather, we are evolving within an ecosystem of other service providers, local producers and international content to provide the best personal entertainment experience to our customers.”
Pricing information for streaming BPL matches on ESCAPE by Celcom were not disclosed at the press event. It is likely to be announced at activities Celcom has lined up in the near future for subscribers.
ESCAPE by Celcom for smartphones and tablets via its official Android and iOS app, while subscribers can also stream on the PC and laptop via www.escnow.com, where further information about the service can also be found.
