Last month, the English Premier League announced Premier League Plus, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service. Launching in Singapore for the 2026/27 season, this marks a watershed moment in global sports broadcasting. For the first time in its 34-year history, the world’s most-watched football league will offer live matches directly to fans, bypassing the traditional reliance on third-party broadcasters. This bold move is not without precedent. The sports streaming landscape has been shaped by a series of DTC experiments, none more instructive than the rise and eventual transformation of the WWE Network.
What is Premier League Plus?
The concept of a “Premflix” has been discussed since 2020. What we do know is that the Premier League has confirmed a partnership with StarHub, the current rights holder in Singapore, and a six-year collaborative trial. The service promises all 380 matches per season, a 24/7 digital channel, and exclusive content. Many details, like specifics on pricing, platform features, and the precise business model, are still under wraps.
Richard Masters, Premier League CEO, described the move as a “long, considered process” and emphasised that the Singapore rollout is a “collaborative trial” with StarHub, not a replacement for existing broadcast deals. The league will study the service’s performance closely before considering replication elsewhere. If successful, Premier League Plus could become a blueprint for global expansion.
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Why Launch In Singapore?
The Premier League’s decision to launch its DTC service in Singapore is sound. Singapore boasts a highly developed digital infrastructure, near-universal broadband and 5G coverage, and a concentrated, affluent, and tech-savvy fan base. Singapore also has a long history of Premier League fandom and a mature pay-TV and streaming market.
By going direct-to-consumer, the Premier League can charge less than a third-party company but still earn more since it’ll attract a larger paying audience. But the league has been reluctant to take this step earlier.
The fact is that the traditional model of selling media rights to broadcasters, on a market-by-market basis, remains incredibly lucrative. While StarHub did not disclose how much it paid for the six-year rights from 2022 to 2028, it reportedly paid $250 million in 2007 for a three-year contract, and Singtel paid $400 million in 2010 for another three-year contract.
Such partnerships also mean the Premier League outsources marketing costs to its broadcast partners, who also are expected to handle everything from customer bills to complaints.
Masters also acknowledged this during the announcement. “For the first time, the Premier League is going to have its own customers,” he said. “It’s going to have to deal with promotion, pricing, churn, distribution, all of those things. We’re looking to build a business.”
The Premier League follows other European football leagues, like France’s Ligue 1, and other major sports, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB), in going DTC.
However, all of these initiatives are relatively new. For a better historic comparison on the success of the DTC model for sports, we need to go a little outside the box, into the realm of sports-entertainment, and the professional wrestling world of the WWE.
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The WWE Network: A Case Study in Direct-to-Consumer Sports Streaming
The WWE Network launched in February 2014 as a subscription-based, streaming service. It boasted 12 annual major events (previously sold in a pay-per-view model for 45 to 70 USD each), a vast content library of thousands of hours of archival content, and even included new original programming. The gamechanger? It was sold to consumers for just 9.99 USD per month.
WWE’s rationale was clear: bypass cable and satellite providers, control the customer relationship, and capture recurring revenue from a passionate global fan base. By convert casual pay-per-view buyers into monthly subscribers, deepen fan engagement, and use first-party data to inform content and marketing decisions.
The service was hailed as revolutionary. WWE bypassed cable distributors, betting that its loyal fanbase would embrace direct streaming. Within a year, the Network had over 1 million subscribers, making it one of the fastest-growing sports streaming platforms.
However, despite early success, cracks soon appeared. For example, while the WWE archives were deep, their ongoing content failed to attract a consistent fan base. Monthly churn became a problem when casual fans only subscribed for big events like WrestleMania.
This meant WWE was sacrificing lucrative pay-per-view deals with cable providers in favour of the subscription revenue model, which didn’t scale as they hoped. In fact, by 2019, subscriber growth had plateaued, and WWE realised they were better off pursuing content licensing partnerships. This led them to NBC in the United States and, several years later, to Netflix.
In 2021, the WWE Network in the US was folded into NBC’s streaming platform Peacock, giving fans access to WWE content alongside movies, TV shows, and other sports. This solved distribution challenges and reduced costs, but it marked the beginning of the end of WWE’s standalone experiment. In 2025, Netflix began streaming live WWE content internationally, except in several European countries. Netflix will acquire all the international rights to WWE content by April 1 this year, which means the WWE Network will permanently cease operations slightly over a decade after its launch.
3 Lessons The WWE Network Can Teach Premier League Plus
Let’s be clear here. The Premier League is not WWE. Its global appeal is far broader, and football is the most-watched sport worldwide. Yet the WWE Network’s trajectory offers valuable lessons:
#1 Scale And Technical Reliability Matters
WWE Network’s early years demonstrated the value of owning the customer: direct billing, first-party data, and the ability to experiment with content and pricing. WWE ultimately struggled because its content had peaks and troughs. It was unable to sustain consumer attention throughout the year. WWE also faced the full brunt of technical failures in the early years, and the relentless need to acquire and retain subscribers amid high customer churn.
For Premier League Plus, the DTC model promises higher margins and richer fan data, but success will depend on flawless execution, especially during popular top-flight clashes. The league must invest in robust infrastructure, customer support, and continuous product improvement. For a sport where every goal matters, Premier League Plus cannot afford similar technical missteps.
#2 Good Content Beyond The Match
WWE Network’s success was built on exclusive live events, a deep archive, and original programming. However, beyond the archives, much of the original programming failed to connect with audiences.
Premier League Plus must deliver not just all 380 matches, but also high-quality streams (ideally in 4K), multi-device access, highlights, interactive features, and seamless navigation.
#3 Pricing Strategy Can Make Or Break
WWE’s flat 9.99 USD monthly fee was attractive but unsustainable. It required scale it didn’t have to be profitable.
The Premier League must balance affordability with the high value of its rights. Fans already paying for multiple subscriptions and may resist paying a premium for a single league.
Premier League Plus should consider team-specific, match-specific, or “follow your club” packages, as seen with NFL+ and NBA League Pass. Initial pricing may need to be low to attract subscribers, with the option to adjust as the service matures.
DTC Is A Bold Experiment With High Stakes
Premier League Plus represents a watershed moment in sports streaming. If successful, it could reshape how fans worldwide access football, reducing reliance on local broadcasters and telcos. But the WWE Network reminds us that passion alone doesn’t guarantee sustainability.
Pricing, technical delivery, and content depth are just some of the main factors that will determine whether Premier League Plus becomes the future of sports streaming or another cautionary tale.
For fans in Singapore, the promise for the upcoming Premier League season is tantalising. A potentially cheaper platform for the world’s most popular game. The challenge is ensuring that the promise doesn’t collapse under the weight of its own ambition.
