A Nigeria’s leading entertainment television station, Silverbird Television, has signed on to broadcast one live English Premier League match per week over the course of the 2020/2021 season.
The deal was signed with Integral, current free-to-air rights holder for the Premier League matches in Nigeria.
Integral secured its rights in a sub-licence deal from Infront Sports & Media agency, substantive rights holder for free-to-air distribution rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Integral currently has a similar deal with national broadcaster, NTA, and would now be adding Silverbird TV as an additional broadcaster partner.
Silverbird would air one of the 3pm fixtures each Saturday on its free-to-air channel, while it would also show a handful of Premier League produced magazine programmes weekly.
Commenting on the deal, the Managing Director of Integral, Abimbola Ilo, said: “We are once again pleased to be bringing the excitement of the English Premier League closer to its fans in Nigeria.
“Silverbird is an entertaining television station watched by millions of Nigerians and it’s only right that the most entertaining football league in the world is added to its roster.
“With the Premier League’s popularity in Nigeria, this is yet another opportunity for its passionate fans to get exciting up to date content on free-to-air TV”
Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of Silverbird Communications, Bola Salako, explained: “We at Silverbird are excited at the opportunity to avail our numerous viewers across Nigeria with select premium football matches from the most exciting league in the world – The English Premier League.
“Silverbird Television is primarily a family entertainment-oriented channel, and it is quintessential for us to ensure that our viewers get the best of every appropriate programming genre.
“Sports is a major part of our content offering and football in particular as the acclaimed ‘king of sports’ holds particular appeal to a large section of our target demographic.
“And with the new Premier League season on the horizon, we are looking forward to team up with Integral on this exciting new project of bringing premium sporting content to mass numbers of Nigerian viewers.”
Idowu Sowunmi
