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Why Tanzanian football fans risk missing out on EPL action this season


Tanzanian football fans could miss out on watching the 2018/2019 European football season after its government threatened to suspend the license of MultiChoice Tanzania, which operate under the DSTV and GOtv brands in sub-Saharan Africa.

This follows a move by the South African based Pay-Tv channel to charge its clients for accessing free-to-air channels, a company that holds the sole rights to broadcast the popular English Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches.

In arriving at that decision, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) last week said that MultiChoice has on several occasions failed to comply with its license condition to exclude the free-to-air stations from its Pay-Tv services.

BREACHING THE LAW

“In exercising its powers, the authority hereby notifies the general public that it intends to suspend all the licenses issued to MultiChoice Tanzania Ltd for failure to comply with the authority’s orders and failure to adhere to the license conditions including failure to exclude free-to-air channels from among its subscription channels,” TCRA said in a statement.

Last month, the regulator also issued intent to suspend Star Media Tanzania Limited, providers of StarTimes for charging clients to access free-to-air channels and refusal to a pay fine it was charged for breach of law.

Coincidentally, MultiChoice Kenya also continues to breach the law by charging its viewers for accessing free-to-air channels such as Citizen TV, NTV, KTN, KBC and K24.