Earlier this year, when I was in London, I went searching for a pub that had live screenings of English Premier League (EPL) matches. It was in vain. Each one within walking distance of my hotel had anything but that.

It was amusing, because in Singapore we are spoilt for choice.

EPL action is a staple in most pubs here, and at S$34.90 a month, you can watch it at home, usually bundled with a range of other sports programmes.

In Britain, home subscription cost a hefty £78 (S$150) a month for far fewer EPL matches last season, and it will cost more when the 2012-13 campaign starts this weekend.

BSkyB raised the rates after they, along with British Telecom (BT), bid a total of £3 billion in June to secure rights for the next three years, or 70 per cent more than what it cost in 2009.

And this was after BSkyB and ITV had forked out £400 million for the UEFA Champions League for as many seasons, starting next month.

Outside the United Kingdom, Singapore pays a premium, believed to be the highest, for EPL TV rights.

This peaked when SingTel's mio TV reportedly paid S$400 million to outbid StarHub as exclusive broadcasters for three years from 2010.

Bidding for the 2013-14 season onwards is set to conclude before the end of this year, and another crunching face-off between the two pay TV rivals is on the cards.

They are also slugging it out for the Champions League, as SingTel's three-year contract has expired.

The two contests could potentially change the landscape for pay TV here - in the price of sports channels and our access to top-quality football.

The signs are already there, if the two telcos' lukewarm interest in other football competitions is any measure.

After months of wrangling, media rights owner MP & Silva only signed mio TV at the 11th hour for last Sunday's Community Shield, and have yet to ink any deal for the rights to their other two properties, the FA Cup and England internationals.

These properties pale in comparison to the EPL and Champions League and the telcos must be shoring up their war chests for football's two crown jewels.

They are prepared to first go for exclusivity, despite cross-carriage laws requiring telcos to offer such content to subscribers of rival camps willing to pay for them, because there are benefits.

June's Euro 2012, the first exclusive content to come under these rules, gave StarHub unfettered access to promote their products to mio TV customers who bought into the tournament.

A small downside is the fee that StarHub had to pay SingTel to carry their live feeds, but industry observers said the amount had to be reasonable lest it breached the cross-carriage rules.

And there is the fight for eyeballs.

SingTel went all out for the EPL previously because they wanted to boost their mio TV subscriber base of 100,000. That base has since jumped to 350,000 but still trails StarHub's 550,000.

But if the BSkyB and BT bid points to an upward spiral for EPL rights, then even if the two Singapore telcos opt for non-exclusive bids, the result will still be a new record payout to the Premier League.

The cost for the Champions League, though priced much lower, is still significant and will leave SingTel and StarHub without much appetite to buy the entire package of FA Cup and England games.

An increase in subscription rates for sports channels is also certain, if not soon then within the next year or so.

Must subscribers be at the mercy of telcos? What happened to the maxim " the customer is king" ?

So far, the increase in subscriptions is a tacit acknowledgement by fans that prices are well within their threshold limit. What will the ceiling be - S$40, S$70 or S$100 a month?

Until subscription levels to EPL matches start reversing in significant numbers, the telcos hold the aces.

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