Chinese broadcaster Startimes has terminated its broadcast deal with the FKF Premier League (FKF-PL) with immediate effect.The deal, that was assigned in September 2020 was set to run for the next seven years but a year into the deal, the company has decided to walk out at a time when wrangles in Kenyan football is high.##NAJAVA_MECA_6001090##The company has stated several issues for their decision to walk out among them failure on the federation’s part to deliver the required number of matches, frequent changes to fixtures, wrangles in football, and failure to honor agreed on deliverables.OfficialStartimes has ended its broadcast deal with the FKF Premier League.#FKFPL pic.twitter.com/q1GTOdCKG3— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) November 25, 2021 Startimes Statement On 29th September 2020 we signed a media and commercial rights agreement with the Football Kenya Federation. Over the years, we have initiated efforts geared towards football development as seen through various legend tours aimed at instilling technical and professional soccer skills to targeted beneficiaries.The media and commercial rights agreement was therefore a culmination of our commitment as a brand to support the development of Kenyan football in our appreciation that a strong domestic league is always a foundation to build a strong national team which would be the pride of the nation.To this end, we have honored our part of contractual obligations including but not limited to the timely disbursement of copyright fees. However, after a careful review of the contract performance which is now in its second season, we regret to announce that we have taken the painful decision to withdraw our media and commercial rights sponsorship with the now disbanded Football Kenya Federation.The execution of the said agreement has been wanting, occasioned by different acts of commission or omission including but not limited to the following:-Failure to deliver a number of scheduled broadcast fixtures: Despite prior confirmations, several fixtures including one Mashemeji derby in the 2020/21 seasonwere not delivered.-Frequent changes to confirmed fixtures: We have had to work with an unstable fixture that has constantly changed, at times on short notice. This has led to lack of cohesion and promotion of wrong fixtures which ultimately translated to limited awareness of broadcasted matches. -Persistent stakeholder wrangling within the football fraternity: The persistent acrimony between the governing body and its key stakeholders among them media and top tier clubs has negatively affected the league’s brand affinity. Being a subscription broadcaster who leverages on content popularity, the constant confrontation has led to limited uptake and viewership of the property as seen through monitored performance on our platform.- Failure to honor agreed contract deliverables: This is seen in various forms including but not limited to failure to broadcast the weekly free to air (FTA) fixtures,providing the weekly magazine shows and acknowledging the media sponsor as the official broadcast partner across agreed platforms. – Constantly putting the StarTimes brand into disrepute: The failure and/or delayed delivery of scheduled fixtures have exposed the brand to constant subscriber backlash.These among others have combined to make it almost impossible to have a return on investment through the sponsorship of the said property. This however doesn’t mean that StarTimes is moving away from sponsorships of this nature. We wish to assure Kenyans that as and when attractive opportunities that touch on sports development arise, we will be open to consider mutually beneficial partnerships which do not endanger our brand reputation or business objectives. This decision has likewise been communicated to the relevant stakeholders including the recently appointed Football Kenya Federation normalization committee.
