GBC ready to pay millions for Ghana FA Leagues’ Broadcast; Not DSTV
Amidst its financial struggles and threats of power cut from the Electricity Company of Ghana, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has submitted two very competitive bids for the broadcast of all the Ghana Football Association competitions, as Ghana’s local football league bounces back this weekend.
Sources close to the GFA Executive have confirmed exclusively to theghanareport.com that GBC surprisingly was offering an affront annual fee in millions of Ghana cedis per season for the next four football seasons for the local free-to-air rights.
GBC also submitted a separate bid for the global rights, also for an undisclosed fee.
StarTimes Ghana, the Chinese pay-TV company, and Multichoice/DSTV, the South African pay-TV giant and industry leader, were also interested in the rights, the sources added.
But the FA is more than likely to proceed with only GBC and/or StarTimes offer(s) as the key factor is the willingness to pay more.
GFA announced on its website on December 5, 2019, that media organisations had up to 5 pm on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, to honour an invitation for bids for the domestic competitions, namely:
- Ghana Premier League;
- Division One League;
- Women’s Premier League;
- FA Cup;
- Women’s FA Cup.
Three days to the start of the season, the FA is yet to announce the outcome of its bid process.
However, sources believe that GBC’s financial offer is accounting for the delay in announcing the broadcast rights holder.
This comes after the successful Congress last Thursday at the Ghanaman Soccer Center and the high profile launch of the leagues last Friday at the Accra Sports Stadium by the Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
It may appear that the FA was assuming that, besides StarTimes Ghana that was in Concrete discussions for the rights before the FA election, no other media organisation could have submitted a successful and competitive bid using only three working days from the date of the notice.
Nevertheless, GBC submitted technical, financial and legacy proposal for the broadcast rights, the FA Source stated, adding that the National Broadcaster appears to be up to play ball this time around and may have the capability to deliver.
Hitherto, widely held notion in Ghanaian football circles was that Ghana’s state broadcaster was unable to make financial commitment to acquire the league and was, therefore, more likely to pursue the broadcast rights for free.
GFA sources suggest that it is rather DSTV that became unwilling to make the FA expected financial commitment, which appears to be above US $4 million.
DSTV was not immediately available for comment.
But a member of the management team of StarTimes Ghana, Mr Eli Kondoh, in a telephone interview confirmed the discussion with the FA before the FA election.
He stated that the purpose was to fine-tune the ambiguous terms in the erstwhile 10-year broadcast rights contract signed in November 2016 with the Kwasi Nyantakyi administration of the FA.
Mr Kondoh disclosed that following the public invitation for bids by the FA, StarTimes was compelled to submit a fresh bid.
Although he could not disclose the amount, he insists that StarTimes was neither reviewing upward nor downward the $17.9m erstwhile contract sum, because it preferred an offer tied to the duration the FA was willing to now consider.
A source at the FA has since corroborated this in a separate interview.
Meanwhile, a source close to the GBC Director-General confirmed that the GBC Management held a meeting the morning of December 10, 2019 (the FA deadline) to approve the GBC bid submitted which proposed to deploy sixteen (16) of GBC’s radio stations and four (4) of its TV channels to deliver the coverage, among others, for an undisclosed fee.
FA Sources would neither confirm nor deny that the deal(s) are yet to be approved by the FA Executive but were emphatic that the eventual deal will inject the needed funds for the running of the leagues.
GFA realistically has until December 26, 2019, to announce its final decision on the broadcast rights to settle the debate over which of these media outlets will deliver the coverage and at what fees.
In a related development, the FA may be close to concluding a deal for a headline sponsor for the league, as the government of Ghana is said to be shelving any investment in the leagues contrary to earlier indication, a source added.