NPFL back on TV with N1.6b StarTimes’ broadcast deal

Six years after the withdrawal of Supersport from broadcasting matches of the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL), the league is set to return to television with satellite television outfit, StarTimes the new outlet.

Yesterday in Abuja, the NPFL management board and StarTimes signed a five-year broadcast deal to beam the country’s league matches to Nigerian homes.

The five-year deal, signed at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, is worth NPFL N1.06 billion and has the potential to rise by N50 million yearly. According to the agreement, Startimes will broadcast two matches of the NPFL weekly from November 18, with the number of games rising to four from February 18, 2024, for the next two years.

After that, the number of games would rise to eight for the last three years of the agreement. Speaking at the unveiling of the broadcast rights, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Ibrahim Gusau, said the deal is aimed at wooing football fans back from the English Premier League (EPL) and other European competitions to the NPFL.

Earlier, NPFL Chairman, Gbenga Elegbeleye, explained that two matches per week would be transmitted live for the first months as a test run for the broadcast.

He said that there would be four live matches every week for the first two seasons of the broadcast deal, plus weekly match highlights of all league games. Since Supersport pulled out of the league, clubs have been live streaming their games on their social media pages like Facebook and YouTube.

Ahead of the current season (2023/2024), the league announced a deal with Propel Sports to broadcast the league via NPFLTV.