BHT1 loses battle again: Why citizens can't watch national team matches on public television

Unlike in most countries around the world, where national team matches are broadcast by public television, in BiH the most common situation is that national team matches are broadcast by private televisions, writes Patria agency.

This was also the case two days ago when the match between the BiH handball team and Estonia from the Mirza Delibašić hall was broadcast by FACE TV. The same applies to the upcoming Saturday return match for which this private television has paid a lot of money.

BHT1 told Patria that they were interested in acquiring the broadcasting rights for the BiH handball team matches, but that they received no response from the Handball Federation of BiH.

- BHT1 expressed its interest in the TV rights for the BiH handball team matches in these qualifiers on two occasions: the first time at an official meeting at the premises of the RS BiH with the president and general secretary, and the second time (given that there was no response from the Federation), in contact with the national team director. In neither case did we receive any response.

The price was not negotiated because the federation never responded to our initial inquiry. At the aforementioned meeting, we outlined our realistic capabilities, material, personnel, and technological. We do not know what arrangement the Federation made with the television that broadcast the match – BHT1 told NAP.

The public television stated that the RS BiH holds the TV rights.

As we have learned, the RS BiH never received an official or concrete offer from BHT1, while on the other hand, FACE television expressed its desire and invested a lot of its resources to enable both broadcasts.

Although we officially asked the management of FACE TV how much money they paid for these two matches, we did not receive an answer.

It is unclear why the details related to the broadcasting rights are being hidden at all, when this is a public matter in all normal countries. There is nothing wrong with a private television broadcasting a match, but public television always has priority over private. In this case, BHT1, in the financial crisis it is in, can hardly compete. Although it should. But these are questions for those who run that television.

In Great Britain, for example, matches of the England national team are mandatorily broadcast by the state-owned BBC, but the match can also be watched on several private televisions, which see their marketing profitability in broadcasting matches. This is the case in almost all countries around the world.

Worse than the fact that citizens are unable to watch the national team's match on public television is that no one feels the need to provide a proper answer to the question of how this is possible.

And again, no one will bear any responsibility.