Nations Cup blackout imminent in Nigeria

Source: Punch

The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja said its members may not broadcast live matches of the 2013 African Cup of Nations.

BON Chairman, Abubakar Jijiwa, told a news conference on the competition’s broadcast rights that this was because of a tussle over the rights payment for it.

The Super Eagles, one of the 16 participating teams, have been drawn in Group C alongside defending champions Zambia, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia in the tournament that holds from January 19 to February 10 in South Africa.

“There is the need for BON to inform Nigerians on efforts made so far to secure the broadcast rights for the competition and to say that the situation is not encouraging at all,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Jijiwa as saying.

“We believe this is the time for the government of Nigeria to intervene on behalf of the people of Nigeria, especially since the 2013 AFCON is only 10 days away.”

He explained that the situation arose following the brick wall BON had met in terms of the acquisition of broadcast rights from the concerned bodies.

The BON chairman said it had started negotiations since November 1, 2012 with an offer of $1.2m to JCM-African Sports Consulting.

“After it rejected that offer about two weeks later, we increased it to $1.5m but the company insisted on €8m (about $10.5m),” he said. 

Jijiwa said BON was to repeat the offer on Nov. 27, after it learnt from LC2 it owned the rights, only for the company to, on December 5, direct it to CFOOT Ltd for negotiations.

“Because of problems of time at this point in time and the fact that the competition is already branded, thus limiting our possibilities of advertising, we had to make a new offer. “We thus, on December 12, offered to CFOOT either $1m for all the 32 matches or $300,000 for selected matches, with CFOOT rejecting this on Dec. 21,’’ he said. The BON chairman, who is also the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), said JCM-African Sports Consulting had since been interceding on its behalf with CFOOT on its price.