Govt releases Shs1.56 billion to help UBC air Qatar FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members.
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), the national broadcaster, has secured the broadcasting rights for this year’s 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament slated to take place in Qatar. The games begin 20th of this month.
According to Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister in charge of ICT and National Guidance, all 64 games of this year’s World Cup season will be aired on UBC and Star TV.
Also, the games will be broadcasted across the Corporation’s radio stations in the country.
“The 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar was moved from the traditional World Cup finals June calendar to November – December due to Qatar’s intense summer heat.
According to the world football governing body, FIFA, the Qatar World Cup audience is projected at 5 billion, up from the 3.8 billion viewers in 2018,” he said.
With such a big viewership of the World Cup tournament, Baryomunsi said it will provide great opportunities for football fans across the globe and excellent product merchandising, promotion and advertising.
He additionally noted that the government had always supported the public broadcaster to ensure that the citizens are part of the global community in sports, entertainment, trade as well as science and innovation.
Without disclosing how much money has so far been designated for the season, Winston Agaba, the Managing Director of UBC, noted that there’s still more support needed from the private sector to pursue airing the 64 games of the World Cup.
However, Baryomunsi later clarified that Shs1.56 billion has now been released to finance free-to-air license and other activities during this World Cup season.
Meanwhile, Agaba also clarified that whatever money is to be used during the World Cup season, accountability will be made.
He added that they are going to involve private media by inviting sports journalists from other media houses to follow up with the commentaries of the World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the members.
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be played from 20th November to 18th December with 32 teams which will compete across 64 matches.
