Asante Kotoko CEO Amponsah unhappy with Ghana Premier League TV rights revenue

Asante Kotoko chief executive officer Nana Yaw Amponsah is displeased by Ghana Premier League clubs’ equal sharing of television rights revenue.

In a collective sale agreement, all 18 teams receive the same amount of money, the rights currently held by Chinese pay TV outfit StarTimes.

“I feel that there needs to be a proper collaboration between the clubs and the right holders [StarTimes] because for me as Asante Kotoko, if all StarTimes gives me is $30,000 for the year, whether 100,00, 1 million, 2 million Kotoko fans watch [a game] on the day or not, – that’s all I get – I am not going to go out of my way to push fans who are not coming to the stadium to watch StarTimes. I don’t see how that benefits me,”

Amponsah said during the African Sports Centre’s Ghana Premier League Webinar with the Johan Cruyff Institute.

“However, if there is a mechanism to share proceeds where I know that if every match day, I am getting 200,00 people or 500,000 people to watch StarTimes and that is going to translate into revenue for the club, then I will take it upon myself to educate my fans, to push my fans to go and watch, so that StarTimes gets revenue, and I get revenue.”

Amponsah was speaking in reference to one of the findings of the ASC’s recently-released Ghana Premier League Report, which stated that comparatively less people are willing to subscribe to pay Tv to watch the GPL in 2021 as compared to last year.

“StarTimes and the FA need to have a relook at the model. For instance, we [Kotoko] are doing the virtual CEEK challenge, and we understand that they only allow only 25% into the stadium. We’ve looked at it, the 75% is going waste. Okay, just take a seat and donate something, and it’s fetching us some revenue,” Amponsah added.

“So, the right holders need to engage the clubs, especially Hearts and Kotoko, with the numbers, and ensure that there is some kind of arrangement that makes us want to push our fans to watch and subscribe to their channels.

“Otherwise, they’re not going to make the return on investment they require. Because, I don’t see why TV money is to be shared, it’s a controversial topic but the TV Rights money cannot be shared the same across board.”

Last year, StarTimes and the Ghana Football Association sealed a five-year television rights deal worth $5.25m US Dollars.