Mpira Television revenue doubles

Revenue from Football Association of Malawi (FAM) Mpira Television (TV)  for the 2023 football season has grown to K146.5 million from the previous season’s K70.8 million, representing a 107 percent growth, records show.

This means subscription has been the major money spinner among Mpira TV’s three revenue channels considering that sponsorships, digital rights and adverts raked in K25.9 million while free-to-air rights amounted to K15.6 million.

FAM said this yesterday after announcing that Mpira TV’s total revenue for the period January to December 2023 grossed K191.6 million as compared to K123 million in the 2022 season.

“The 107 percent growth in subscription revenue is clear evidence that Mpira TV is positioned to remain a strategic lever in our football commercialisation drive. We managed to grow Mpira TV viewership through leveraging strategic partnership with Star Sat in addition to already existing Zuku, Azam and Fifa plus,” FAM’s final revenue report for the period between January and December 2023 states in part.

“At least 108 matches were broadcast live on Mpira TV alone and 256 matches were streamed live on Fifa+. We thus provided escalated Return on Investment to our esteemed sponsors as we consistently carried their brands, products and services to millions of captive audiences beyond the stadium walls and across the globe.”

FAM commercial and marketing director Limbani Matola yesterday said they are now looking forward to the 2024 season with focus on optimising revenue growth through consolidating the free-to-air package offerings, monetising Fifa+ and introduction of Mpira TV App, which will increase access and provide convenience to many football fans.

He said it is also pleasing to note that revenue available for distribution has increased by 67 percent to K104 million from K62.2 million.

“After making allocations for administration costs and technical partners [host broadcasters and host producer], the teams are receiving 80 percentof the K104 million total net revenue while FAM and Super League of Malawi [Sulom] get 10 percent each,” Matola said.

The development means each team is supposed to receive K5.1 million up from K3.8 million in 2022, representing a 67 percent increase. FAM’s share is used to service other costs including regulatory obligations such as the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority license fees.

Mighty Tigers general secretary Chisomo Sabola and Bangwe All Stars chief executive officer Chikumbutso Mathumba have described the developments as goodnews.

However, they have pleased with the football authorities to distribute the funds to the teams in good time to facilitate preparations for the 2024 season.

“The improved revenue shows that football commercialisation is key to football growth,” Sabola said.