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The Nairobian

Fight for Harambee Stars’ match TV rights gets murkier

Football

By Omulo Okoth | Jul 04, 2015

**Harambee Stars winger Paul Were during team's training session ahead of their CHAN qualifier clash against Ethiopia at Nyayo Stadium io on July 2, 2015.PHOTO/DENNIS OKEYO**

The fight for television rights for today's Harambee Stars and Ethiopia African Nations Championships (Chan) qualifier in Nairobi got murkier in the past 48 hours.

Shortly before Chinese media group Star Times and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) signed the five-year Sh450 million deal, SportFive, which holds media rights for African Football Confederation (Caf) sent a tersely-worded letter to their potential rivals regarding televising today's match live.

"We hereby refer to the press release published today (July 2) by Star Times and Football Kenya Federation and to the announcement that Star Times set to broadcast the match (Kenya vs Ethiopia) which is part of the preliminary tournament Chan 2016," says the letter.

"We would remind you that Caf owns, on an exclusive basis, notably any and all of the rights usually refered as the "media rights" and emanating from the preliminary tournament CHAN 2016, including all the related matches and the match above mentioned without restrictions to content, time, place and law.

"In such a context, no one is legally authorised, without a prior written agreement granted by Caf represented by SportFive, to, in particular, use and/or exploit, throughout the world, any media rights related to all or part of the preliminary tournament Chan 2016, regardless the broadcast means or the broadcast protocols involved (television by any means of transmission, broadcast on internet,...) or the intended recipients (fixed receivers, mobile,..." says the letter.

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"In this framework, please be informed that the Football Kenya Federation is authorised by Caf to only grant the right to broadcast the match above mentioned within the territory of Kenya, by means of unencrypted hertzian terrestrial television.

"As a consequence, the Football Kenya Federation and Star Times cannot benefit from any other media rights for this match. In particular, the Football Kenya Federation and Star Times are not authorised to exploit any other broadcast means except those granted under the authorisation above, or to broadcast by any means outside the territory of Kenya," said the letter.

"Therefore, the contract concluded with Star Times should not be valid for any of the Caf competitions and the preliminary rounds and the African preliminaries of the Fifa World Cup 2018, knowing that Caf reserves the exclusive right to commercialise the rights in question," it concluded.

During the signing ceremony, FKF said Star Times would broadcast live today's match between Harambee Stars and Ethiopia. FKF also said Star Times would have right to broadcast Stars' friendly matches.