THE Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has acquired sub-licensed rights to one English Premier League fixture per match week.
The deal was brokered by Integral Sponsorship and Expe- riential Marketing, a Nigerian sports marketing company, after the Infront agency sold the rights on. The deal covers the three- season cycle between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
NTA’s deal also includes the rights to broadcast Premier League-produced magazine programmes which will be aired on a weekly basis.
Jean-François Jeanne, man- aging director at Infront France, said: “Nigeria is a key market for the English Premier League. Together with Integral, we hope to maximise its media exposure in the country and provide an opportunity for passionate Nige- rian fans to follow the action on ree-to-air TV.”
The deal mimics the agreements signed in South Africa by Infront with free-to-air broadcaster OpenView and with Ghanaian FTA broadcaster Max TV, though the latter only covers the 2019-20 season.
Infront acquired the Premier League’s free-to-air distribution rights in over sub-Saharan Af- rican countries for the 2019-2o to 2021-22 cycle, though it is expected that the agency faces a challenge to extract value over the lifespan of the contract due to the demise of Kwesé TV.
Infront is managing the sale of the rights through its newly- created Africa division based in Paris, and the Premier League sales mandate follows on from the agency’s distribution of free- to-air rights in the region to the 2016 Olympic Games.
Pan-African pay-television broadcaster, SuperSport holds the pay-television rights to
the Premier League across Sub-Saharan Africa during the current cycle.