Advertisement

A battle of pay TV brands

Saturday August 19 2017
azamu

Azam banners in the background. The firm is the official sponsor of the premier league, Azam Uganda Premier League. PHOTO | ISMAIL KEZAALA | NMG

By JULIUS BARIGABA

The gloves are off as pay TV company, Azam Pay TV Mauritius Ltd, initiates a legal battle against media houses citing abuse and infringement of the league sponsor’s intellectual property rights in the coverage of the football league – officially known as Azam Uganda Premier League (AUPL).

Two-and-a-half years later after sinking $1.9 million in a deal for the naming and broadcast rights of Uganda’s top flight football league, pay TV company Azam is not happy as one of its main rivals Chinese pay TV giant StarTimes — sponsors of one of the league’s most dominant sides, Kampala Capital City Authority Football Club (KCCA FC) —hogs the limelight at its expense.

Azam launched in Uganda in 2014, and followed this with a three-and-a-half year deal in February 2015 to sponsor the local league — a move that gazumped the sponsorship deal that South African sports channel SuperSport had signed with the then Uganda Super League.

StarTimes had already jumped into the fray with a sponsorship of KCCA FC to the tune of Ush750 million ($205,694) in 2014, and this year signed a new package worth Ush3.2 billion (nearly $1 million) for four years till 2021.

This complicated matters when KCCA dominated the league, winning back-to-back titles in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, and subsequently enjoying a lot of good press, something that has not gone down well with Azam, the league sponsors.

On August 2, DeMott Law Advocates acting for Azam Pay TV Mauritius Ltd wrote to media companies in Uganda in a formal complaint.

Advertisement

“This abuse has not only caused confusion to the public, but it is also detrimental to our client’s business and infringes on its rights,” the lawyer’s letter reads.

“On TV and radio, it is not a big concern, but in print the issue is serious,” says Simon Arineitwe, Azam Uganda’s general manager, adding that “the letter is clear, the issues of concern have been addressed by Azam Mauritius.”

The lawyers caution the media, saying they have instructions to explore legal remedies should media houses fail to drop this perceived bias.

“There are 16 clubs in the elite league which is well within the knowledge of every media house. However our client has noted that there is only one team whose players’ photos have always been portrayed in the print media whenever reporters or writers are referring to the league generally.”

In a market of about 2.5 million pay TV subscribers, StarTimes has over one million subscribers – compared with over 90,000 for Azam, industry data shows.

According to Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the regulator, the pay TV companies operating in the country are DStv (satellite), Gotv (terrestrial, Citi Cable (cable), Azam (satellite), Star Times (satellite), Star Times (terrestrial) and Zuku TV (satellite).

By press time, according to Mr Arineitwe, no media house had responded to the accusations contained in the latter by Azam lawyers.

Advertisement