AUB Seminar on the Commercialization of AFCON 2019 Rights and other CAF Events
Less than a month from the African Cup of Nations, which begins on June 21, 2019 in Egypt, the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) is working hard to allow African TV channels to make better use of this global scale competition.
From May 21 to 23, 2019 in Dakar, the Union organized in collaboration with CAF, a Marketing seminar on the exploitation and commercialization of TV rights of AFCON 2019 and other CAF competitions covering the period 2019, 2021.
The training brought together about fifty participants, including Marketing, Programs and Legal Directors from 17 African countries, notably Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.
According to Abdelmounain Bah, the CAF’s Marketing & TV Director, "we launched in February 2019, a call for tenders for the marketing of TV rights. This offer was won by the AUB which initiated this workshop. With the African national televisions, we discussed the issues related to AFCON signal piracy, conflicts of interest, especially regarding AFCON sponsorship. More importantly, we wanted to remind national TVs to pay their rights on time”, he said.
For Grégoire Ndjaka, Director General of the African Union of Broadcasting, African TVs can take better advantage of the AFCON and improve their treasuries. "We learned from one of the presentations that there are several ways to make CAF Events profitable instead of waiting for classic advertisers. There is need for TVs to organize meeting points with viewers and create opportunities to attract new advertisers, "he said.
Emmanuel Wongibe, the Deputy Director General of Cameroon's national television, stressed the need for Program Directors to work in collaboration with Marketing Directors to improve profitability: "If the Program Director does not know what you are doing as marketer then how would he make your work profitable, "he asked, stating that sport is used today by some Nations to sell the image of their countries and attract more investors. For this purpose, Rwanda is cited as a good example. This country has signed a partnership with the English club, Arsenal under the concept "Visit Rwanda", and it works.
The trainees dwelled on topics related to Signal encryption, Sponsoring, Branding, Identification and exploitation of value-added products and Understanding of contracts, among others. Workshops were provided by Yasmine Arkhoub of Melting Sports-France Consultant, Emmanuel Wongibe, Deputy Director General of CRTV, Abdel Bah, Caf’s TV Marketing Director and Georges Lomotey, Head of Sports Department at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
