The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
MORE broadcast players could still come on board to air Castle Lager Premier Soccer League games as the agreement signed with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is not exclusive, the Sunday News can reveal.
In a short joint statement last Saturday, the PSL and ZBC announced they had agreed to a deal that will see games being aired on ZBC television and radio stations but made no further pronouncements on the nitty-gritties of the deal.
PSL media liaison officer Kudzai Bare said they would be releasing the finer details of the deal with ZBC but revealed they could still engage other players in the industry.
“At the moment we have only reached an agreement with ZBC and that is the deal that is there, we may or may not tie up contracts with others who applied. Unfortunately I cannot release any details of our agreement with ZBC at the moment and will only be able to do so next week,” she said, without elaborating the reasons.
Bare revealed ZBC will be airing today’s PSL fixture between Caps United and Ngezi Platinum live on ZTV while radio stations that fans can tune into to follow the PSL action are Radio Zimbabwe and National FM.
Following the expiry of the SuperSport broadcasting deal last year, PSL decided to go through the tender route to find potential partners in both radio and television platforms at the beginning of the year but they had to reopen the bidding process again last month after revealing bids submitted earlier did not meet their requirements.
Sources close to the deal said it is not exclusive and ZTV only has the right to broadcast one game each week on television.
“Many think the ZBC deal is exclusive just like the previous SuperSport but it is a different case as other players can still come in. What happened is that PSL realised there was a yawning gap in the broadcast aspect of the game and a deal had to be concluded. On the radio side more players might be coming on board,” said the source.
Those seeking rights to broadcast live radio commentary were reportedly asked to pay $45 000 while the figure to acquire television rights could not be ascertained.
Bare was quoted by our sister paper, B-Metro saying they will continue exploring live streaming of matches following an episode where they showed the blockbuster tie between Ngezi Mine and Highlanders on their Facebook page. Soccer live streaming is the broadcasting of football matches on the Internet using one’s laptop, tablet or smartphone.
“We are happy with the response we got from the live streaming debut; it’s an area with great potential as we try to market the PSL brand. We will certainly continue live streaming selected matches in our endeavour to increase brand visibility,” Bare was quoted saying.
