3 bid for Super League rights
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) yesterday opened bids for Super League exclusive broadcasting rights which revealed that three media houses showed interest to partner the association in beaming the elite league matches.
MTV, Beta and Times TV submitted bids for the Super League games for a period of three seasons.
MTV bid is at a price of K37.5 million, Beta TV bid price is K266 million while Times TV bid price is at K149.3 million.
Sulom treasurer Tiya Somba Banda said they would evaluate the bids the next two weeks before coming with the successful bidder.
“Sulom is not bound to accept the highest bidder. Technical capacity will also be evaluated,” Somba said yesterday.
“Evaluation results will be announced within the next 14 days.”
Sulom invited the bids on April 7 asking interested media organisations for exclusive broadcasting rights for 240 Super League games per season for a period of three years which closed on April 21.
Sulom president Innocent Botoman said this is one way of bringing football matches in people’s homes while broadening Sulom’s revenue collection.
Multichoice Malawi sales and marketing manager Chimwemwe Nyirenda while applauding the initiative advised Sulom to categorise the games rather that exclusive rights.
Nyirenda said: “The thing is that we don’t have a value for our league. Usually televisions rights are paid in advance. It is very expensive to shoot the matches, so it will again be tough for the one who gets the exclusive rights to sell them to another media house considering how much they have spent on production. We have not yet reached that level yet.” n
