Public-service broadcaster the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation agreed a sponsorship deal with mobile telecommunications company MTC which has helped it fund the acquisition of the rights for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, which began last weekend in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Local media sources said the sponsorship deal was worth over N$550,000 ($70,000). The deal was agreed late on Tuesday afternoon.
NBC’s director general Albertus Aochamub told the Informanté website that Namibia’s failure to qualify for the tournament had dampened sponsors’ enthusiasm for helping the broadcaster acquire the rights. “Sponsors… felt there was no audience to justify any injection of capital in to acquiring broadcasting rights,” he said.
Corporate sponsors often help free-to-air broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa to fund sports rights acquisitions in return for advertising airtime.
Aochamub said the broadcaster was currently in talks with potential sponsors for its coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games. “The NBC is currently in negotiations with the rights-holders and potential sponsors to partner with investors whose role will be to cover the costs of the rights while receiving unlimited advertising space,” he said.