Home ›› 15 Dec 2022 ›› Front
It is usual practice for any broadcasting entity to pay a redistributor for media rights – especially for extremely popular programmes such as the FIFA World Cup 2022. However, when Toma – a construction company – sells world cup rights to BTV for nearly Tk 98 crore, questions can arise.
To get to the heart of the matter, The Business Post followed a trail of breadcrumbs. The details uncovered can get lengthy, but it is crucial to first understand how the redistribution of FIFA media rights work.
The FIFA list of media rights licensees name Viacom18 India as the media rights holder of World Cup 2022 for the Indian subcontinent. Viacom18 has sold sub-license directly to companies of six countries.
But for Bangladesh, Singapore based Avemore Pte Ltd and Norwester Omar K Sports Joint Venture (NWO Consortium) signed a tripartite agreement with Viacom for a sub-license, for exclusive rights to broadcast audio visual coverage of the Qatar FIFA World Cup 2020 in this territory.
Who are the redistributors?
NWO Consortium is a Dhaka based sports marketing company.
Avemore is a Singapore-based corporate company with diversified businesses including non-ferrous metals, railway equipment and machinery, railway labour contracting, steel, food products, construction material, machinery and equipment.
Avemore and NWO acquired the rights to telecast matches on a live, delayed and repeat basis by means of cable, satellite, terrestrial, IPTV, broadband and mobile technology. They also got non-exclusive rights to make radio broadcasts.
Industry insiders say the NWO has sold the world cup broadcast rights to T-Sports, which then made a deal with Gazi TV for sharing programme feed. The NWO also sold digital streaming rights to Toffee, a platform of telecom company Banglalink.
Both T-Sports and Toffee admitted to paying NWO for the broadcast privilege. Speaking to The Business Post, T-Sports CEO Ishtiaque Sadeque said, “NWO has provided us with World Cup 2022 feed. We are their satellite TV channel partner. We paid them to get the rights.”
The curious case of BTV
State-run Bangladesh Television (BTV) – also acquired the World Cup 2022 media rights after a Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting on November 16 – only four days before the event began.
However, BTV bought the rights from Toma Construction for Tk 98 crore, not directly from the NWO like the others. Toma Construction – which claimed to BTV that they had bought the rights from NWO – made Tk 71.54 crore after VAT and Tax deductions.
BTV, for the first time ever, paid money for telecast rights for a world cup football tournament. For example, in the last two world cups in 2014 and 2018, BTV did not need to spend money to air the events.
At that time, the local media rights licensees provided BTV with live feed. In exchange, BTV allotted the licensor the advertisement time slots and got a share from the revenue earned from the advertisers as well. When asked why BTV suddenly decided to pay for world cup rights, the channel’s Director General (DG) Shohrab Hossain said, “In the previous world cups, we used to get live feed under the package programme system.
“Feed providers used to purchase slots and shared an amount they earned by showing advertisements. But this time the rights holders refused to share feed with us for free. So we had to buy the rights.”
Providing further details about the process, insiders say the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had sent the proposal to buy BTV’s live World Cup broadcast rights to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on November 14 for approval in-principle.
The Economic Affairs Division agreed to provide Tk 54.15cr to BTV for this purpose, and asked the information ministry to get additional funds if needed through advertisements.
But BTV informed the ministry that Toma Construction will not provide the world cup rights for the above mentioned amount. BTV also could not get advertisements to collect more money. Later, upon government approval, BTV purchased the rights from Toma at Tk 98 crore.
Commenting on the significantly large sum BTV paid for the world cup telecast rights, compared to T-Sports and Toffee, Shohrab said, “This decision was not made by us alone, it came after discussions with the ministry.”
What’s the dilemma?
Toma Construction told BTV that they got the world cup media rights from NWO, according to the BTV DG Shohrab Hossain. So, the usual move for Toma Construction should have been to pay NWO.
But Toma Construction told the Bangladesh Bank that they secured the world cup media rights from Avemore, and got approval to pay the Singaporean company.
Insiders say the NWO should have been responsible for sending the sub-licensing fees to Avemore.
Commenting on the matter, Director of Foreign Exchange Policy Department at the Bangladesh Bank Md Sarwar Hossain said, “The NWO has never even sought the regulator’s authorisation to remit these fees.”
Insiders claim the company spent $3.2 million on the world cup media rights sub-licensing fee.
Sarwar added, “Toma Construction had applied to us seeking authorisation of sending nearly $3.6 million to Avemore Pte Ltd. The company had told us that they want to send the money to cover the world cup media rights fee.
“The Bangladesh Bank granted Toma Construction this approval as the company had presented all required documents, including a copy of sub-silencing media rights agreement with Avemore.”
According to a highly placed source, Toma Construction has already sent money abroad through Southeast Bank Ltd using the central bank’s approval. It should be noted that the FIFA’s list of media rights licensees do not mention the name “Toma Construction.”
What do Toma and NWO say?
For clarifications on the matter, The Business Post made multiple attempts to contact NWO CEO Fahad Mohammed Ahmed Karim through call and text messages, but he did not respond to any query till the filing of this report.
Meanwhile, Toma Construction & Company Ltd Deputy Managing Director Mukitur Rahman said, “We are not in a position to comment about the deal with BTV. We are just a service provider. BTV is a government entity, and we do not have the rights to discuss this matter.”
Commenting on whether Toma had acquired the world cup media rights from local company NWO, he replied, “I cannot disclose details about this matter either. This [contract document with BTV] is a government document. You can collect that from BTV if you want.”
When asked why Toma Construction claimed to have an agreement with NWO in front of BTV, but changed it to Avemore in front of the central bank, Mukitur said, “I cannot comment over any issue involving the Bangladesh Bank.
“A contractor like us cannot comment on anything that involves a government entity. You should contact the ministry concerned, as the deal with BTV falls under public procurement.”
