24 - 30 January 2002
Issue No.570
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 January 2002 Issue No.570 |
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Live from Mali
Several countries are airing their grievances over broadcasting rights to the championship
A bruising dispute between two of Ghana's three television stations over the exclusive right to broadcast football's African Nations Cup (ANC) in Mali continued into the opening match on Saturday with both stations broadcasting the match live.
The dispute between the state-owned Ghana Television (GTV) and the private station, Metropolitan Entertainment Television (Metro TV), spewed into the open last week when Metro TV filed a suit in a court in Accra for damages from TV Africa, the international station which has the broadcast rights. The court has yet to rule.
Halfway through the first half of the opening match, GTV read an announcement warning that any other station showing the match live was in breach of the law. Without naming Metro TV, the announcement described the action as unprofessional and said the management staff of the station involved in the criminal act could be sued. But Metro TV did not budge and broadcast the match to the end of the 90 minutes.
While GTV had its logo on the screen on its channel, Metro TV added its logo to the GTV logo on its channel throughout the match.
In Nigeria, another dispute over television rights had the opposite effect: millions of Nigerians will miss out on the ANC action altogether. The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) banned all Nigerian TV stations from transmitting matches from the tournament in Mali.
The BON said it took the action following the refusal of TV Africa, which has broadcast rights to Mali 2002, to make the signals available to Nigerian television stations on mutually acceptable terms. BON further directed stations which have signed agreements with TV Africa to record the matches but not transmit them.
TV Africa, based in South Africa, granted rights to broadcast to only a few of its affiliate stations. Other stations which tried to acquire broadcast rights had their efforts blocked, a situation which BON said was unacceptable.
The BON statement added that TV Africa was driven only by profit considerations and that it was denying Nigerians the right to watch the biggest football fiesta in Africa. TV Africa was accused of planning to monopolise the Nigerian airwaves during the competition.
Kenyans will also miss televised action from Mali 2002 due to the failure of their broadcasting corporation, KBC, to secure the rights. ANC rights are held exclusively by TV Africa, which had given their Kenyan affiliates, STV, the rights to air the matches. But STV only broadcasts in Nairobi, Mombassa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Machakos and Eldoret.
TV Africa's regional director Ronnie Andrews confirmed the rights will not be sold. Andrews defended STV, saying that it reaches nearly 70 per cent of TV set- owning Kenyans. He claimed that KBC had marketed the tournament for themselves even though the Kenyan station does not have the rights of the tournament. "They went ahead to invite advertisers to book for the tournament without even negotiating with us," Andrews said. "They did this despite knowing that we had exclusive rights to the tournament. We can't work with them like this."
A KBC marketing official denied ever marketing the tournament but conceded the decision of TV Africa not to sell them the rights was "disappointing." It is also unlikely that KBC will show the World Cup finals.
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