One Africa, NBC still negotiating World Cup deal

WITH just nine days to go before the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, One Africa Television and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) have gone into extra-time on reaching an agreement on the screening the games live.

The national broadcaster has been negotiating a share of the spoils with the free-to-air station since One Africa announced in April that it had bought the exclusive rights from Fifa, the world soccer governing body, to broadcast the matches live in Namibia. The channel will be receiving the feed from ARD, the German federation of one national and ten regional public broadcasting stations, which has been commissioned by Fifa’s official broadcasting host, Host Broadcast Services (HBS).By yesterday afternoon, One Africa and the NBC had not reached an agreement, although it is expected that this could happen by today.Last week, One Africa took issue with the fact that the national broadcaster was offering advertising packages for the live broadcasts even before negotiations had been finalised.Yesterday, Hileni Fillemon from the NBC’s Public Relations department said that the NBC has since withdrawn these offers.”The only reason we put up the advertising packages was because we were being pro-active,” she explained.”One Africa themselves have said that they were considering the proposal favourably,” she said, noting that the NBC could not have been expected to wait until the last minute to look for advertising.She said the NBC was driven to negotiate for the rights to a live broadcast by the knowledge that the Namibian nation is a soccer-loving one.Representatives from both the NBC and One Africa said that they were expecting an agreement to be reached by yesterday afternoon, or today at the latest.Asked whether One Africa was holding out for an agreement beneficial to them, the station’s Managing Director, Paul Van Schalkwyk, said they were rather interested in lasting co-operation with the national broadcaster.The 2006 Fifa World Cup Germany kicks off on June 9 with host nation Germany taking on Costa Rica.A total of 64 games will be played over the month-long tournament.More than 150 television and radio stations from around 145 countries are reported to have applied for the broadcasting rights to screen the games.HBS has been responsible for all Fifa World Cup television broadcasting since 1998, and a total of 30 billion viewers are said have watched the last World Cup in 2002.The channel will be receiving the feed from ARD, the German federation of one national and ten regional public broadcasting stations, which has been commissioned by Fifa’s official broadcasting host, Host Broadcast Services (HBS).By yesterday afternoon, One Africa and the NBC had not reached an agreement, although it is expected that this could happen by today.Last week, One Africa took issue with the fact that the national broadcaster was offering advertising packages for the live broadcasts even before negotiations had been finalised.Yesterday, Hileni Fillemon from the NBC’s Public Relations department said that the NBC has since withdrawn these offers.”The only reason we put up the advertising packages was because we were being pro-active,” she explained.”One Africa themselves have said that they were considering the proposal favourably,” she said, noting that the NBC could not have been expected to wait until the last minute to look for advertising.She said the NBC was driven to negotiate for the rights to a live broadcast by the knowledge that the Namibian nation is a soccer-loving one.Representatives from both the NBC and One Africa said that they were expecting an agreement to be reached by yesterday afternoon, or today at the latest.Asked whether One Africa was holding out for an agreement beneficial to them, the station’s Managing Director, Paul Van Schalkwyk, said they were rather interested in lasting co-operation with the national broadcaster.The 2006 Fifa World Cup Germany kicks off on June 9 with host nation Germany taking on Costa Rica.A total of 64 games will be played over the month-long tournament.More than 150 television and radio stations from around 145 countries are reported to have applied for the broadcasting rights to screen the games.HBS has been responsible for all Fifa World Cup television broadcasting since 1998, and a total of 30 billion viewers are said have watched the last World Cup in 2002.