The Oceania Football Confederation, football’s governing body in Oceania, has cancelled plans to produce live television broadcasts of nine 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifying games this month due to a “lack of interest” from regional broadcasters in purchasing the rights.
“Although networks in New Caledonia and Tahiti bought the rights, there was a lack of interest from television stations around the region,” OFC general secretary Tai Nicholas said.
The OFC said that broadcasters from across the Pacific, as well as networks in Asia, were offered the rights through the confederation’s international media partner, the MP & Silva agency. However, the lack of interest meant that OFC TV, the confederation’s in-house production unit, would have incurred a loss of $140,000 (€114,000) on producing the coverage. The OFC decided that the project was “not economically viable.”
Nicholas added: “We have to operate financially and be prudent with our funds and OFC TV was facing a $140,000 loss in the live production. This does not make good business sense and it would have been irresponsible of us to proceed any further.”
OFC TV planned to produce live broadcasts of nine qualifying matches taking place in New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Tahiti for a total cost of $180,000.
The OFC said that broadcasters that had acquired rights would be fully reimbursed.