David GOMBE
The relationship between television viewers in Uganda and national broadcaster, UBC, has not always been cozy but thanks to Qatar 2022, trust has been restored.
As promised in early October, UBC has broadcast six games in Match Day one involving Africa’s most favourite teams at the world cup, namely Senegal, Cameroon and Ghana plus world giants France, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and Belgium.
Week two will see the broadcast menu expand to include Germany, England and Spain. The first week of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 has been full of shocks, thrills and surprises. Call it the week of the underdog where world giants Argentina and Germany were stunned and the Asian continent finally found a place on the high table of football authority.
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As Japan shocked Germany with a 2-1 win, South Korea put the brakes on Uruguay by forcing a goalless draw and Iran recovered from their opening 6-2 defeat to England to get a 2-0 victory against Wales.
Asian football has grown in leaps and bounds. Africa started on a false note as both Senegal and Cameroon succumbed to narrow defeats but Senegal have returned strongly in their second Group A game with a 3-1 victory over the hosts, Qatar.
Tunisia and Morocco showed that the football in North Africa has tactically and technically caught up with Europe; forcing 0-0 draws with former European champions Denmark and 2018 world cup finalists, Croatia.
African audiences have plenty on the menu to be excited about.
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Thanks to the national broadcaster UBC who hold the FTA broadcast rights in Uganda, even the remotest village in the country is enjoying the world cup. Relying on Signet’s signal distribution to free-to-air decoders available countrywide and pay television decoders; StarTimes and Azam who are legally mandated to provide access to UBC channel to customers, the national broadcaster has managed to fulfill the promised it made a month ago that Ugandans would enjoy Qatar 2022.
The 28 games granted to UBC by FIFA have the viewership value that has excited millions of Ugandans. UBC is available on channel 202 and channel 447 on StarTimes, the network that has the biggest television audience in the country.
