When Sports Illustrated TV shut down in 2019 only to be followed by Fox Sports Asia closing in 2020, things like baseball, hockey and F1 found themselves no longer being broadcast in Southeast Asia. Some established temporary homes, others focused on their league-specific OTT offers and college football simply disappeared entirely. It, for lack of a better term, sucks.
There is some good news, however. Race fans wanting to watch F1 in Asia can enjoy some respite with beIN SPORTS having secured rights in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons. All events will be broadcast on beIN Sports pay-TV channels in the country as well beIN SPORTS CONNECT, the company’s OTT platform.
The agreement covers Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Philippines, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. In most of those markets, the rights had previously been held by Fox Sports before its closure.
While availability varies a bit from country to country, beIN SPORTS currently holds the rights to several major soccer competitions, including LaLiga, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Serie A, in addition to the Australian Open and other ATP tour events.
Giving people the ability to watch F1 in Asia is certainly a boon for beIN SPORTS where it finds itself as the largest OTT sports broadcaster by default. In Thailand, a yearly subscription costs roughly $25.
Interesting Analysis
While it is nice you can finally watch F1 in Asia, overall, it is still a pretty miserable time to be a sports fan here. beIN SPORTS and DAZN are the only multi-sport OTT platforms available and neither invests all that much outside their core focus. That’s soccer for beIN and combat sports for DAZN. The rugby-centric Premier Sports Asia is so comically overpriced that most people won’t bother with it.
It still blows my mind ESPN Player just up and stopped broadcasting in the region in 2020 for no rhyme or reason only to be followed closely by Fox Sports Asia shutting up shop. Sure, the NBA and NFL are possible to find on cable TV but MLB, NHL, college football and college basketball are essentially invisible.
Of course, baseball and hockey have their own league-focused OTT offerings, but these are not viable for most people living here. If someone has the broadcast rights for college sports in Southeast Asia, they seem hellbent on doing nothing with them.
Hopefully, beIN SPORTS securing rights to F1 in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong is the start of them acquiring more content and not a one off to pop subscriber numbers.
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