BY HAMZA NKUUTU Good news, good news, good news to the fans of the English Premier League because GTV has come to home. The level of frustration was as evident as you would guess after fans around the country missed to watch their favorite teams in actions on the opening weekend of the new season. Reason being, Super Sport no longer has the monopoly to show live Premier League matches as it has been in the last couple of years, 80 percent of the rights now belongs to their rivals GTV. Realizing the disappointment the English Premiership fans went through last weekend, the South African based satellite television decided to come home [Rwanda]. “After being overwhelmed by subscribers in Uganda and Kenya, GTV has decided to come to Rwanda as well,” a reliable source close to the company told Times Sports yesterday. The source disclosed that GTV will ship in the first assortment of dishes and their accessories before the end of this week. The company has already set up its Kigali offices based at the MTN Centre in Nyarutarama, a posh Kigali suburb. Background GTV got the license to broadcast live Premiership matches after the intervention of the current Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown that led to a new structuring of football licensing deals across Africa, to be split by several broadcasters instead of being held by the pay TV monopoly holder, DSTV. GTV won the exclusive rights to screen 80 percent of all the games per season for the next three seasons. The license runs from this month (August) and includes 8 matches per week. GTV’s Licensee Live Package A will include the ‘most decisive’ matches as determined by the league and this package will include the large majority of live matches. Ends
