Nigeria’s pay TV company, HiTV, has won the exclusive broadcast rights for the Barclays Premier league for 2010-2013 seasons. The company won the rights for the Nigerian territory in a highly competitive bid Thursday last week. The company, which has in the past two seasons held the majority broadcast rights to the league, did not however disclose the amount it paid for the new deal. It currently screens eight out of 10 matches every week, leaving one as free-to-air while Multichoice screens one or two matches via DStv. This development, however, means HiTV will now have exclusive pay TV rights to broadcast the championship in the country. This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Football Association Premier League, Mr Richard Scudamore. Chief Executive Officer of the Hi Media Group, Mr. Toyin Subair, said: “We have been awarded the television, mobile and Internet rights for another three seasons – 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. The Premier League did not break up the rights into two separate packages like the previous seasons but bundled all the matches into one package which we won. As such, HiTV now owns 100 per cent of the rights.” Explaining further, he said: “Over the last two years, we have been broadcasting the Premier League live to Nigerians in the comfort of their homes at a price they can afford. Nigerians can now look forward to another four years of continued qualitative enjoyment of premium soccer. HiTV can also now consolidate on its achievements, grow its subscriber base further and build an even more sustainable business. HiTV is also now better positioned to help brands, advertisers and marketing agencies who want to take a long-term perspective towards using soccer as a launch pad and/or platform for their brands.” Aside from conventional contractual obligations especially related to payment of rights fees, THISDAY learnt that there are no unusual conditions attached to the rights. Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of the Hi Media Group, Mr. Olumide Amure, stated that HiTV subscribers “should be on the lookout for more value-added services such as mobile downloads, opportunities to watch the matches on the Internet, travel to watch their teams play live in stadiums, visit their teams dressing rooms and even have interviews with their favourite players.” HiTV won the rights to broadcast the world’s most popular football league in 2006 beginning from the 2007-08 session, dislodging Multichoice which had held the broadcast rights for the African continent.

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