FINAL COMMUNIQUE
Friday 4th November 2016 The African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) announces that its Executive Council held an extraordinary meeting which was open to all member organizations whose countries have qualified for the 2017 African Cup of Nations on Friday November 4, 2016 at its headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. The objective of the meeting was to report on the status of the negotiations for the acquisition of broadcasting rights of the 2017 AFCON with the Lagardère Group. After the first meeting with officials of the Lagardère Group on September 23 and a second on October 12, 2016 in Paris, the negotiations reached a deadlock over the rights acquisition fees as presented on the table below: CATEGORY AMOUNT in Euros LAGARDERE AUB A 1 350 000 1 100 000 B 700 000 400 000 C 500 000 300 000 D 100 000 15 000 NB: Category A is made up of qualified countries. Non qualified countries are grouped into three categories; B, C and D taking into account the size of the audiovisual advertisement market, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the popularity of football. In recognition of the efforts made the Executive Council congratulated the CEO and the Follow-up Committee of the AUB. It instructed the CEO to continue with the negotiations. Council implored the Lagardère Group to work towards a successful conclusion of the negotiations for failure could deny viewers across the continent access to this event. The Executive Board called on all Director Generals to inform their respective governments of the deadlock and to solicit their support in this endeavour that has become a major political concern for the continent as testified by the resolution of the African Union’s (AU) Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and Information Technologies during the July 2016 Heads of States summit In Kigali, Rwanda. The Executive Council also called on all member organizations to communicate as extensively as possible on the issue so that their citizens who are the true owners of the event should be fully aware of the stakes. The Executive Council invited all member organizations to confirm the mandates which they gave to the AUB to negotiate on their behalf, so as to obtain a significant reduction in the broadcast rights fees. Done in Dakar. The Executive Council