FANS were disappointed when they tuned in to watch the 'live' telecast of the match between Arsenal and Manchester City on StarHub's Football Channel 27 last night.

The match at the Emirates was scheduled to start at 10pm Singapore time but transmission broke down just before the start of the match.

As an alternative, StarHub showed the match between Newcastle and Chelsea which was shown 'live' on Channel 22.

It was the same case for the West Ham-Sunderland match which was supposed to be beamed 'live' on Channel 21.

To explain the situation, StarHub ran a line across the television screen saying, 'Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, we are currently unable to join Arsenal v Man City'. Tranmission of the two matches resumed only after half-time.

When contacted, Huang Shu-Yin, StarHub's assistant manager for corporate communications, told The New Paper: 'StarHub was monitoring our 'live' carriage of three simultaneous BPL matches closely when we found out that there were technical difficulties experienced by the FA Premier League, the broadcast provider of the BPL which is based in the UK.

'The FA Premier League rectified its technical issue in time for the 'live' telecasts of the second halves of the Arsenal v Manchester City and West Ham v Sunderland matches. The disruption to the 'live' broadcast of these two matches affected all countries taking the satellite feed from the FA Premier League.

'We apologise to our viewers for any inconvenience caused and will air full repeats of the affected matches on Football Channel. In addition, the full Arsenal v Manchester City match will also be available via BPL on Demand, accessible any time.'

- LIM HAN MING