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Nigerian fans risk Nations Cup blackout

Imagine the Super Eagles of Nigeria playing at the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola and their compatriots back home having to monitor proceedings on the internet or wait till the next morning to know the outcome. That seems rather impossible but the haggling over fees for TV rights for the Nigerian territory has raised so much concern such that matches of Angola 2010 might not be viewed on terrestrial television in Nigeria.

Investigations revealed that Sports5, the firm authorised by the Africa Football Confederation to market the TV rights for the Nations Cup, has traded rights for the West African territory to LC2, another sports marketing outfit based in Cotonou, the Republic of Benin capital.

Oddly enough, LC2, it was gathered has pegged the fee for the Nigerian territory at a whopping $10,000,000 (N1.5 billion) which no Nigerian TV station or marketing company is willing to part with.

Owners of LC2, it was revealed, have a penchant for hiking the fee for the Nigerian territory ostensibly due to the country's teeming TV viewing population and the scramble for such rights by rival bidders.

Interestingly too, LC2 is reportedly making efforts to sell the rights in bits to willing buyers in the face of the stout opposition to the $10 million wholesale fee. A Lagos-based satellite TV signal disribution company which has football broadcast has its mainstay was said to be ready to buy rights to some of the Nations Cup matches for $2.5 million (N375 million).

Speaking on the issue in an interview with our correspondent, ace sports journalist, Mitchell Obi, decried what he called "the outrageous fee" being demanded by LC2.
"They have been hawking it (Nations Cup TV rights) around and the fact is that nobody wants to touch it, because no marketer of TV station has ever made profit when they part with that kind of money.

"Another obstacle to paying such a large sum is that no telecommunication company in Nigeria was ready to do business because Orange, the title sponsor of the Nations Cup is also a telecommunication outfit though it lacks presence in Nigeria.

"So, I agree that majority of people in Nigeria that has the biggest football followership in Africa may not see matches of the Nations Cup unless something is done about the fee presently being touted," said Obi, who is also the chief executive of Mastersports, a sports marketing firm based in Lagos.

The non-availability of matches of the Nations Cup on terrestrial television in Nigeria means soccer fans in the country would have to seek alternative in cable TV stations like Supersport and perhaps HiTV.

Matches of the Angola 2010 16-nation competition will be played between January 10-31 and the Super Eagles will begin their campaign on January 12 against defending champions Egypt.

Posted by Oladipo Okubanjo on Wednesday, 6th January 2010

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