StarTimes, the Chinese-owned Pay-TV operator with tentacles
across Africa, is at “serious risk” of receiving a court-mandated “winding-up”
order over US $11million debt.
Reports say StarTimes Media “repeatedly failed to pay” for
sports rights to the BeIn Media Group concerning the French football Ligue1,
which forced the latter to initiate a wind-up of StarTimes unless it pays its
debt.
According to GlobalData Sport’s reporting, StarTimes is as
at present owing upwards of US $11million (including accrued interest) to BeIn
Media Group – based on information gleaned from the court petition filed by the
media group.
The GlobalData Sport report also suggested that both
StarTimes and BeIn Media Group had gone through several arbitration levels to
resolve their issues. Still, it is alleged that StarTimes has continued to
renege to payment agreements reached – always citing “tough economic climate in
Africa”.
BeIn Media Group has decided it has no option other than to
petition the Courts to initiate a wind-up of StarTimes unless it pays its debt
because the media group is irked that whilst it is not being paid, StarTimes
has kept announcing the acquisition of more sports rights acquisitions in the
past year.
GlobalData Sport quotes a source close to the legal
proceedings told as saying: “It should be of huge concern to the industry that
an entity facing winding-up proceedings is, in the same breath, parading around
the world signing deals with much fanfare.
“We’ve seen this kind of conduct before, and it only ends
badly for rights-holders and the industry.”
StarTimes did not make any official comments on the matter.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com