For many lovers of local Nigerian football, watching their local teams live on television has been a herculean task for years.
Several attempt had been made to get matches beamed to Nigerian homes, but each effort fell flat.
Added to the popularity, razzmatazz and glamour of European Football especially the English Premier League (EPL), La Liga and Serie A, the local football scene was set to go into visual oblivion.
But all that has changed as the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL) is now livestreaming through its real-time app: www.npfl.tv.
This follows months of planning by the League Management Company (LMC) – sole company licensed to organize and regulate the top tier league for Nigeria.
It signed a deal with Redstrike, a British firm who are the new commercial partners
The LMC is targetting an increasingly internet-inclined Nigerian populace as well as the over 35 million Nigerians in the diaspora.
In a recent interview with a Nigerian newspaper ThisDay, Shehu Dikko, chairman of the LMC, said this move to livestreaming league matches would revolutionize Nigerian football forever.
According to him, the npfl.tv app is projected to generate at least $200 million in five years.
“Our objective is to consolidate on the progress being made in spite of all the challenges and to ensure the continuous commercialization of the league in line with international best standards. Also, we hope to get our comprehensive transaction with Next TV up and going so we can have our games on Television across all platforms – such as mobile, cable and FTA and others. Everything over there is about the system and it’s growth and everyone is aligned to this fact regardless of personality, political or groups differences. So if we want to learn from international best practices and benchmark, this is the starting point and everything will fall in place.”
Shehu Dikko, LMC Chairman
How the app works
The NPFL app is available on google playstore, apple and amazon platforms.
It can be watched via smartphone, tablet, laptop and other streaming services.
The NPFL app is operating under an OTT platform/channel for streaming matches, while also housing all the apps of the individual NPFL clubs and provide the best possible fan engagement among others.
Other features of the app include: fixtures, results, news, catch-ups, photo gallery and lots more.
The 2020/2021 NPFL league season kicked off on December 27, with a mimimum of three games streamed live per fixtures.
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