The moves come ahead of the next international rights cycle of English football’s Premier League – fees for which were expected to grow exponentially – and after three years of explosive growth, culminating in a deal last year for Uefa Champions League and Europa League rights in Nigeria worth over $100 million over thee years.
The NBC said that during an NBC-run workshop on rights acquisition and piracy last week, participants had “resolved that Nigeria was presently expending too much money on the acquisition of foreign sports broadcast rights”. It advised pay TV operators “to be patriotic and reverse the trend in order to stem the huge economic haemorrhage”.
Participants had also “implored the government to provide the necessary enabling environment to promote local sporting events to attract sufficient broadcast patronage”.