Startimes Business Risks Winding-Up Court Order Over $11m Football Rights Debt

StarTimes, a Chinese electronics and media company with businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, is at risk of getting a winding-up court order, GlobalData is reporting.

The sports market intelligence platform reports that StarTimes has not paid BeIN Media Group for broadcasting rights to Ligue 1, the French football league.

In 2018, StarTimes signed a deal with BeIN Media Group which holds international Ligue 1 rights from 2018-19 to 2023-24 to broadcast English- and local-language Ligue 1 in sub-Saharan Africa.

The pay-TV operator is mentioned to now owes BeIN $eleven million, together with hobby.

A monthly payment plan was agreed upon between both events after the problem changed into taken to courtroom in Hong Kong earlier than the begin of the 2019-20 season, but StarTimes overlooked the first instalment due on October 1.

The legal representatives of each parties have no longer reached a conclusion and BeIN has now issued a winding-up order on Startimes.

In the 2018-19 season, StarTimes stated the tough monetary weather in Africa made it hard to pay its money owed and the COVID-19 pandemic worsened its financial situation in 2020.

In addition to Ligue 1 rights, StarTimes also has non-exceptional French-language rights to LaLiga, the Spanish football league, for four years and other competitions it's far showing within the 2020-21 season include Spain’s Copa del Rey, England’s FA Cup, Italy’s Coppa Italia and Europe’s Uefa Europa League and behind schedule 2020 European Championships.

It also has a seven-yr, $7.7 million address the Kenyan Football Federation, the Confederation of African Football for the African Nations Championship, Extreme E motor racing series and the united states’s Impact Wrestling.

“It need to be of big challenge to the industry that an entity going through winding-up lawsuits is, inside the equal breath, parading around the sector signing deals with a whole lot fanfare. We’ve seen this type of behavior earlier than and it handiest ends badly for rights-holders and the industry,” GlobalData quoted a supply familiar with the legal lawsuits to have said.

StarTimes did not make any reputable feedback on the matter.