Members of the KPM are accused by some MPs of violating the Constitution, the letter of the Premier League that treats Kosovo as a state

The Chairman of the Independent Media Commission, Jeton Mehmeti, has stated that last week they received a disturbing letter from the Premier League, creating uncertainty about the broadcast rights of the Premier League in the territory of Kosovo.

Mehmeti, while reporting to the Commission for Public Administration, Local Government, Media and Regional Development, said that in the letter sent by the Premier League, it is stated that three operators licensed by the KPM are broadcasting without the right.

He added that immediately after receiving the letter from the Premier League, they requested evidence from the operators to see the Arena's contracts with the Premier League. Mehmeti said that in the documents they have analyzed, it is stated that Arena has the right to broadcast and sell the channels to other operators.

He added that they will continue to research this broadcast relationship between the Arena and the Premier League.

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"We received a letter directly from the "Premier League" that it is being broadcast without rights by three operators licensed by the KPM, which are Art Motion, Kujtesa and Ipko. In that letter, the Premier League has confirmed that the right for three seasons of the league broadcast for Kosovo starting from the 2022/2023 season. The Premier League has given two independent entities, one of them is Digitalb and has the right to broadcast the Premier League in Kosovo in the Albanian language and the other is called Arena and it has the right to broadcast in the Serbian language. In that letter dated September XNUMX, it is said that any broadcast of Premier League matches not made with the authorization of Digitalb or Arena shall be deemed to have been made without the authorization of the Premier League...

We asked the ArtMotion operator to bring a confirmation that it has an agreement with the Arena, where the same has given the right to Art Motion to broadcast the Premier League in Kosovo. In the confirmation letter, it is stated that Arena confirms that it has the right to distribute Arena Sport channels to other operators in the territory of Kosovo. Arena confirms that it has these rights for the territory of Serbia, including Kosovo, and this includes the Premier League.

Based on these letters, in order to have this right, a KPM operator must have an authorization with one of the companies that have the broadcasting rights for Kosovo, such as Digitalb and Arena. The last letter has prompted us to ask the operators to once again bring back the authorizations they have with the Arena because we want to be sure of the right to broadcast the league in Kosovo and we are waiting for those documents to come to an end that someone did not have the right to broadcast the league in Kosovo", said Mehmeti.

Meanwhile, KPM member Luljeta Aliu said that based on the agreement that Arena sent to KPM, there are doubts that Arena has cheated and if this is the case, Arena will no longer have the opportunity to broadcast in Kosovo.

"There was an ambiguity with the broadcasting and resale rights on the part of Arena, and as it seems in the agreement in which we received that regulates these relations, the part that clarifies it is missing, there should be two authorizations. It says that there must be two authorizations in the agreement and there must also be authorization from the Premier League... There is a suspicion that there was fraud on the part of Arena, this is fraud against the commission because the Premier League would have given this clear information, I believe that it is a deviation and a fraud and it is a matter that should be taken seriously and in other cases Arena may have contracts but in this case if the suspicion is proved, then there is no good faith that Arena has the rights to operate in Kosovo or there is any channel in Kosovo, we will take our legal steps", Aliu said.

The chairman of the media commission, Valon Ramadani, told the members of the IPC that he expects them to take further steps regarding this issue.

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"I think they are clarified in the letter received by the Premier League, especially the issue of whether they had confirmation or not, it is clearly written there that there was no confirmation, you have to continue on. For us, it is very important what your action will be in the face of this fraud that has made this key in relation to us Artmotion, Arena Sport that has deceived that there is an agreement and in fact the Premier League had no knowledge of the broadcast in Kosovo" , Ramadani said.

Even the MP of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Besim Muzaqi, added that the KPM had to ask for additional clarifications from the Premier League and make a decision on this issue.

"In the confirmation letter that Arena has the right to give Artmotion the right to distribute there in the last sentence it is stated that we have rights for the territory of Serbia for the territory of Kosovo. Hasn't it impressed you that with this fact you violate the Constitution of the Republic, if you think that this is a small matter when the territory of Serbia also includes Kosovo, you should have asked for additional clarification from the Premier League or treated it as a document which the republic it does not treat our country as a state", emphasized Muzaqi. /kp/