The game in the palm of your hands
Mqondisi Dube | Friday July 2, 2021 09:22
New Botswana Football League chief executive officer (CEO), Solomon Ramochotlhwane recently said the Premiership’s broadcast rights landscape could be set for a shift.
Botswana Television (Btv) has enjoyed an unrivalled monopoly, until 2013 when Supersport was granted a one-season cashless deal. However, it was felt the arrangement resulted in taking the then Be MOBILE Premier League only to the ‘elite’ who had access to the pay-per-view channel.
It left loyal, low-income earners in a lurch. It was only recently that Supersport’s parent company, Multichoice widened its viewing options with the introduction of on-the-go products, like DStv Now. The product range affords viewers the comfort of watching the game from whatever location where there is connectivity.
But still, it’s a preserve for the few, who can manage to pay the premium bouquet subscription. After the unpopular Supersport deal, it was back to Btv, where the traditional way of watching the game persisted.
This entails the viewer switching on the television set to enjoy a live match. There are few other options for those away from home or the television set. Elsewhere, particularly in Europe, the dynamics have long changed.
At a train station, a fan can enjoy an uninterrupted broadcast of a match, in High Definition quality, from their mobile phone. But in Botswana in particular, fans do not enjoy the same luxury when they want to follow the local league.
At the time football activities were suspended last year in March, the old way of ‘rushing home’ was still the order of match days. No other platform, other than Btv through a television set, delivered the football games. But that could change.
The BFL CEO, Ramochotlhwane in his media briefing last month, said that the new organ plans to grant broadcast rights to an organisation that can offer the game on a wide variety of platforms. “We are going to make sure we have as many online platforms as we can, to make sure they reach the fans to their doorstep. We have been thinking of introducing a pay-as-you-view method for our fans to be able to access the games whilst generating income for the clubs,” he said. It is an ambitious plan and a welcome break from the traditional setup. However, options are limited.
Btv is the only local station with the financial muscle to offer a decent sum to the BFL. Ramochotlhwane wants to see broadcast rights take their rightful place as the biggest revenue earner for clubs.
Local sides have been heavily reliant on grants from the Botswana Premier League, while revenue from gate takings has been a pittance. The Btv deal has expired, and there was no joy in the last two seasons as the BFA had signed a cashless deal in 2013.
This has seen already financially hamstrung clubs teeter on the brink of collapse. According to the Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB), only a handful of clubs were in good shape to consistently shell players’ dues.
But the approach Ramochotlhwane and BFL want to take in deriving substantial revenue through broadcast rights could shift the landscape. However, their major concern will be the lack of suitors in the local market.
Supersport is another option, but they had expressed worry over the Botswana market size. Access Television (Acess TV), which has a wider reach through several online platforms, recently indicated it was unable to come on board due to limited resources.
“We would be interested but the issue would be financial and resources in terms of manpower backing. We do not have the kind of resources and finances to enable us to beam the football league games, to be able to fully keep up with the demands of the job at hand,” Access TV station manager Thatayaone Gumede recently told our sister publication’s Monitor Sport.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, a long-running partnership between the state broadcaster, ZTV and the Premier Soccer League was recently broken. The television rights were granted to an online television station, Zimpapers Television Network in a landmark deal.
The matches are live-streamed, as Zimbabwe’s soccer authorities opted for a platform that reaches the wider community. Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti said they are cognisant of the changing dynamics in broadcast rights deals.
“If you look internationally, you can only promote the commercial aspect of football through television, and if you see what is happening in South Africa, all the games are being broadcast. That is what gives the sponsor exposure.
The same approach has to be applied in Botswana,” he said. “The state broadcaster cannot give us that exposure. What we should do is to find a production partner that will partner with Btv and the league so that they can broadcast more or all the games.
In that way, they are giving the sponsor exposure. Not only that, we can go into streaming the games that will provide income for the sponsors. That’s the approach I am taking. Obviously, it’s new thinking so it has to have the league’s ownership, the broadcaster ownership and the sponsor’s ownership,” Letshwiti added.
He said the purpose is to commercialise the game where the sponsor will realise returns for their investment. “This is the same route we are talking about in Zimbabwe and it’s the same route we are taking but here in a form of partnership between the sponsor and the production house so that we see virtually all the games. This is the thinking,” Letshwiti said.
While broadcasting games through the television sets have proved less cumbersome, a regular irritant lies in wait in the new route most countries are embarking on.
In most African countries, connectivity remains the Achilles Heel. Only 22% of the continent’s population has access to the internet, the lowest in the world. But the acceleration in mobile broadband coverage will shine a ray of light to millions particularly, in sub-Saharan Africa, as efforts to bring the game to the palm of the football fans’ hands, gains traction.