StarTimes seals five-year deal as NPFL official broadcast partners

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) and cable television brand, Startimes have signed a five-year broadcast deal to beam league matches.

Nigerians can now watch the top-flight league from the comfort of their homes as a result of the broadcast deal.

This was confirmed during the contract signing ceremony in Abuja, with officials of Nigerian Premier League and Nigeria Football Federation in attendance at the Sharaton Hotel on Thursday.

It is a 5-year deal worth N1.06bn with Startimes, and potentially witness a 50 million increment annually.

From November 18th, two games per week will be televised and from February 18, 2024, and four games per week for the next two years. Then eight matches per week for the next 3 years.

According to NFF president Ibrahim Gusau, the broadcast deal is aimed at driving the interest of football fans in the country to the league over foreign football leagues like the English Premier League (EPL).

While explaining, NPFL chairman Gbenga Elegbeleye said two matches per week will be transmitted live for the first months as a test run for the broadcast.

The NFF 2nd Vice president also further said that there will be four live matches every week for the first two seasons of the broadcast deal plus weekly match highlights of all league games.

This will be the first time that the league will return to television after the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) showed league matches after the 2015/2016 season.

During the 2015/2016 campaign Supersports broadcast the league as Enugu Rangers won the title.

Previously, clubs live-streamed their games on their social media pages like Facebook and YouTube.

Ahead of the current season (2023/2024), the league announced a deal with Propel Sports to broadcast the league via NPFLTV.

More details to come!