By Mark Baber
January 10 – Nigerian fans might not be able to watch the Africa Cup of Nations after the Malam Abubakar Jijiwa, Chairman of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), a coalition of electronic media companies, held a press conference on Wednesday to announce it had failed to acquire the broadcast rights.
Jijiwa explained the organisation had informed Sports Minister Bolaji Abdulahi, NBC and the Presidency of the impasse in negotiations.
Jijiwa said the rights owner LC2 had asked for €8 million Euros (about N16.3 billion) for the broadcast rights and threatened legal action if there was any breach. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) owns all broadcast rights which have been licensed for sale to LC2 Media.
LC2 holds exclusive broadcast rights for all African markets.
Jijiwa said that BON had made an offer of $300,000 (about N48m) for selected matches involving Nigeria, the opening, quarter, semi and final matches but that this had been rejected.
Jijiwa said: “The fee they are asking for is not realistic as we don’t have a buoyant professional league and our national team is not doing well internationally. This situation will affect advertising revenue so no one can make profit and break even at €8 million.
“There is a cartel in sports and we should not allow them to control us. If they want to protect their rights, let them approach the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to set up their stations.”
Jijiwa also criticised the decision by CAF to brand the tournament the ‘Orange Africa Cup of Nations’ which he said had discouraged important potential advertisers such as rival mobile phone companies Globacom, MTN and Airtel.
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