No agreement between BPL, DBS yet

Public broadcaster Botswana Television (BTV) might not be able to broadcast the start of the new Be Mobile Premier League season this weekend, with the Department of Broadcast Services and Botswana Premier League yet to commit to a new deal.
The previous agreement between the two parties elapsed at the end of last season, although it was revealed in last month’s Annual General Meeting of the BPL, that talks were at an advanced stage and a new deal was set to be reached in a few days, nothing is yet to be put on paper.
In an interview with Gazette Sport, the Chief Executive Officer of the Premier League, Bennett Mamelodi revealed that the ongoing talks have yet to yield a final resolution despite once again promising of an agreement to be reached soon.
“We have not reached an agreement yet but everything will be done this week,” shortly stated Mamelodi. The CEO could not disclose the cause of the prolonged talks.
Sources close to the development suggest it is the fees that have been set before the table that have got both parties reluctant to reach an agreement. This publication last month divulged that the BPL was expecting a P2 million increase to the P6million of the previous arrangements.
“The problem here is that, some feel prices are just being hiked, last season it was P6million and now they want more. Now we will see what happens in the next couple of days,” said one source.
Should a new deal be reached, a few new developments would be expected to be in place. Some of the changes which are set to be brought by the new deal were the local broadcaster being able to change some of their broadcast schedules for live BPL matches during the week and to broadcast a few more matches played in the northern region of the country. Clubs would also be given footage of previous games which had not been the case in the previous years.
Meanwhile, the Premier League will stage the launch of the new league season later today (Tuesday), the CEO was coy on discussing some of the latest developments for the new season stating that they were “worth waiting for”.