Companies seeking to acquire broadcast rights of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) have been invited to approach the league body with offers for negotiation.
On Wednesday, NPFL Chairman, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye clarified that the adopted marketing approach of the board is for non-exclusivity, and have therefore not foreclosed the signing up of more rights holders.
Elegbeleye described as shocking, claims by an individual alleging that there was an offer for $11 million to the NPFL for the rights before the StarTimes deal was executed.
“For the avoidance of doubt and for public records, the NPFL and StarTimes deal took months to conclude and all through the duration of our negotiations, nobody approached us with any offer”, the NPFL Chairman explained.
He further narrated efforts of the defunct Interim Management Committee (IMC), of which he was also Chairman, to attract a broadcast partner, including getting the Nigeria Communications Commission to broker a meeting with SuperSport, which did not express interest to take up the offer in the end.
“The NPFL has an office in Abuja and the facilitator of the said $11 million offer knows this place and has contacts of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President. We are still very much open to negotiate as our deal with StarTimes provides for a third party investor.
“Let the person please come to our office or to the NFF because we are still open for more partnerships in the broadcast space”, Elegbeleye explained.
The NPFL boss said that the unbundling of the broadcast bouquet has made it possible to accommodate multiple partners
“It is obvious that we have unbundled the broadcast products and segmented the number of matches any rights owner can show every matchday. So there is still a window to accommodate genuine interests in our league broadcast partnership”, Elegbeleye, who also is the NFF Second Vice President, said.
Faulting claims that the league fail foul of the Public Procurement Act, which governs sales of government assets in the country, the former member of the Federal House of Representatives, said: “The NPFL is incorporated as a private company limited by guarantee at the Corporate Affairs Commission and is not captured in government funding.
“We do not receive funding from government but run our programme from money generated through sponsorships and we operate a transparent system that accounts for sponsors/investors funds to maintain the integrity of the league.
“In any case, we have made sufficient noise right from the inception of the IMC and we were able to have the very successful Super 6 on television, so there’s no person in the industry who is not aware that the League hasn’t been on television for the past six years. Where were they”? he retorted.
So far, the NPFL has secured two broadcast partners in Propel Sports Africa for the Over-the-Top platform and StarTimes for the Direct-to-Home cable platform.
