Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) Acquires Broadcast Rights to London 2012 for Nigeria

The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has acquired broadcast rights to the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games for a sum of US$500,000 (79 million naira).

In acquiring the broadcast rights from Octagon SA, the NOC is hoping to recoup roughly US$1.6 million through the sale of rights to various local television and radio partners.

“It will be the first time that NOC will solely acquire the broadcast rights within its territory,” said NOC president Sani Ndanusa. “As you know, the official owner of the broadcast rights of the Olympic Games is the International Olympic Committee, which in turn markets the right to various global and regional organisations of interest. For sub-Saharan Africa, a South Africa-based global advertising and services network, Octagon SA, purchased the broadcast rights of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“We decided to venture into the broadcast project due to our desire to protect the property rights of our partners, who have committed their resources in support of the Olympic movement. As part of our resolve to safeguard the rights of NOC partners, we endeavoured to ensure that our partners are in a position where they are given the first right of refusal in terms of commercial advertisements via the Olympic Games broadcast network,” Ndanusa added.

Akinloye Oyebanji, the General Manager (Sports) of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), gave the assurance on Wednesday at the unveiling of the partners at a news conference in Abuja.

The NOC had, earlier at the conference, named NTA, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Africa Independent Television (AIT) as the broadcast partners.

He said the broadcast partners were ready to play their part by doing a good job.

“We are prepared and you will all get the best you can get,” he said.

Oyebanji said that followers of Team Nigeria, as well as the Olympic Games as a whole, would be adequately served by NTA’s 24-hour sports channel.

Emeka Odikpo, FRCN’s Deputy Director (Sports and Outside Broadcast), also promised extensive Olympic Games coverage.

“We will have many pre-event programmes in our countdown, through all these stations, while the Games’ coverage itself will be outstanding,” he said.

Mrs Yetunde Akin-Olaiya, a representative of the marketing agency engaged by the NOC, Connect Marketing, said that three types of marketing packages have been designed for their partners through which they can advertise and reach their targets.

They include platinum, gold and silver partnership. The first level costs N70million, while the second costs N55million. The silver partnership goes for N35 million.

The Chairman of the NOC Marketing Committee, Patrick Ukah said that some Nigerian companies have already entered into London 2012 partnership with NOC and have made cash and kind payment which will enable them leverage on the opportunities of the games.

They include Bank of Industry, Mr Biggs, Cowbell and First Bank.