ENTV, the public broadcaster in Algeria, has retained domestic broadcast rights to the North African country’s top two football divisions.
Following a meeting of its executive committee, the Algerian professional league (LFP) announced that it will sign a new agreement with ENTV in the coming days. The deal will cover the remainder of the 2019-20 Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons, plus the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns.
ENTV became embroiled in a payment dispute with the LFP and its member clubs last season. The state broadcaster withheld fees and bemoaned the football authorities’ lack of action in tackling the piracy of its coverage. However, the league has now said that all outstanding payments have been settled.
The new Ligue 1 season kicked off in the middle of August but ENTV did not show any games, given a new rights contract was still not in place.
The LFP announced at the start of the 2017-18 campaign that it had generated DZD550m (€4.12m/$4.58m) in media rights revenues for that season.
Earlier this month, the LFP revealed that it had been unable to agree terms with title sponsor Mobilis, the Algerian telecoms operator. The new season began without a title sponsor and the league has now decided to launch an invitation to tender next week.
Mobilis became the title sponsor in 2014 in a deal worth DZD220m per year.