The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) says it was disappointed and shocked when the Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced StarTimes as television rights holders for the 2019Ghana Premier League and the FA Cup.
“Apart from GBC’s superior financial offer, we thought that the Premier League and FA Cup content would have been treated like a national treasure and given to the national broadcaster and a consortium of local broadcasters,” the national broadcaster said in a statement signed by Mamie Asare, the Director of Corporate Affairs.
After naming StarTimes as the rights holders on Wednesday, the nation’s football governing body announced that the highlights will be given on a non-exclusive basis.
GBC notes the GFA rejected its $1.1 million per year bid when the station had been highly rated by the African Centre Survey Report on the Ghana Premier League.
It finds it strange, therefore, for the FA to by-pass it for a company that does not even have free-to-air (FTA) capabilities.
“GBC has FTA capabilities like none other,” the statement stressed.
“Apart from GTV and GTV Sports+, we have a nationwide network of radio stations with combined effect of reaching Ghanaians better than any other station in the country.
It said when football was at the nadir in the country as a result of the Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposé in 2018, “it was GBC that invested huge human and material resources to work with the Normalisation Committee to bring the Special Competition to the homes of Ghanaians, live”.
“GBC did this at the time nobody care about showing the game on TV because it was unattractive.”
GBC says it wants “the right thing” to be done.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana