Nigerians May Miss Nations Cup On TV

The joy of millions of Nigerians to watch the African Cup of Nations scheduled to start in South Africa this weekend may be short-lived if the attempt by certain Nigerian marketers in collaboration with an  international organization (LC2 Media) go ahead to insist on charging outrageous TV rights for Nigerian television stations to bring the live feed of the matches to their homes. CKN Nigeria investigation has shown that while other countries like South Africa and Ghana are paying $1m dollars as TV rights, Nigeria is being asked to pay 8,000,000 Euros for the same rights.

The Director General of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), Alhaji Abubakar Jijiwa, has said that the rights for AFCON 2013 tournament in South Africa were over priced.

Explaining why Nigerian football lovers may be deprived from watching matches of the forthcoming tournament, Alhaji Jijiwa said although the tournament was already sponsored by a telecoms company; Orange, a France based company was also charging Nigerian broadcasters 8 million Euros..

He said, “Nigerian broadcasters  have refused to pay the 8million Euro media rights charged by a French company for Nigerian media to air the matches of the forth coming African Nations Cup matches on terrestrial TV stations.

CKN Nigeria investigation has shown that the umbrella body of broadcasting television stations in Nigeria (BON) have agreed to pay $2,500,000 for the rights but the marketers are not shift their stand because of the interest of some Nigerians.

CKN Nigeria attempt to speak to the Ministry of Sports officials has not yielded fruit but someone who spoke with us said the broadcast issue has nothing to do with the Ministry.

According to him, the broadcast right arrangement is purely a private arrangement, although attempts are being made to resolve the issue.

If the issue is not resolved between now and Friday, Nigerians may have no other choice than to watch their darling Eagles through Pay television