Chinese-owned Pay-TV channel Star Times on November 25, announced their termination of the seven-year deal contract to transmit live FKF Premier League matches.
StarTimes was tasked with broadcasting live top-flight matches, national teams for both men and women, and also 30 matches in the National Super League (NSL).
The termination of the contract comes in the wake of the disbandment of the Football Kenya Federation(FKF) on November 11.
The following are the reasons as to why the broadcaster resulted to terminating the seven-year deal contract:
1. Failure to deliver a number of scheduled broadcast fixtures: Despite prior confirmations, several fixtures including one Mashemeji derby in the 2020/21 season were not delivered.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Constantly putting the StarTimes brand into disrepute: The failure and/or delayed delivery of scheduled fixtures have exposed the brand to constant subscriber backlash.