Football is here again

Graphic Showbiz Showbiz News Jun - 05 - 2014 , 10:04

BY the time you read this piece it will be seven days to the world cup. Exactly one week for the greatest single sport showpiece in the world to commence in what has been accepted globally, even if colloquially, as the home of football.

Football was not invented in Brazil, but the Brazilians have given the beautiful game its most creative, realistic and transformational expression than any other country in the world and therefore many enthusiasts as well as connoisseurs of the game have looked forward to this particular tournament with fondness.

The entire civilised world will come to stop over the next four weeks when the tournament that many people have hoped for and looked forward to comes alive in the various cities earmarked to host the rest of the world.

At the time of putting this piece together almost all the participating countries have released their 23 man squads to take up the onerous responsibility of representing their various countries at this tournament. Some of the lists are very rich and the quality put the fear of God into opponents.

Ghana is well represented at the tournament as well and our own master tactician James Kwasi Appiah has also announced his squad to go and defend the flag and the good name of Ghana on the soils of Brazil.

Thanks to the magic of television and other modern technologies several billion people around the world will be exposed to every frill, thrill, move, action, skill, dribble and act that will take place on the green turfs of the stadia built purposely for this event.

Some of our compatriots will be going to Brazil to cheer the Black Stars on. However unlike South Africa which is pretty close and therefore many people could go, Brazil is a far and hence the cost of travel is so high that not as many people will end up there.

Thankfully, the local television and radio stations have been caught in the middle and knowing that this is also a time for them to cash in to increase their revenue from advertising, they are turning every stone to make sure the games are brought to Ghanaian viewers.

Indeed, the most serious brands also know that this is a period to be taken serious and have taken advantage to either send fans to Brazil, do locally relevant promotions or sponsor viewing centres and fan parks for people to show up and watch games or just take part in the jamboree.

From where I sit, I have seen a lot of preparations by, brands et al towards making the World Cup a good experience for those who will stay behind. Though the experience may not be the same as being on the grounds in Brazil, certainly it will be reflective of that.

As far as broadcast rights go, there have been a lot of politics going on since the Black Stars qualified to take part in this tournament and as much as it seems all is done on the surface, there are still some undercurrents that would infest even after the tournament is over.

I mentioned in this column some months ago that the holders of the rights to broadcast are GTV and Metro TV which have formed a “consortium” with other television stations to broadcast the matches.

Thus initially the Ghana Television Consortium along with Metro TV, GTV Sports Plus, Net 2 TV, ETV and First Digital TV (former Skyy Digital TV) were to show the matches.

The consortium which marketing agency is OMP had made it clear that no other channel apart from these would be showing the matches during Brazil 2014.

They even held a press conference addressed by Francisca Ashitey Odunton (Deputy Director General of GBC), Geroge Lomotey (Head of Sports at GBC) and Fadi Fattal (CEO of OMP) and categorically stated that no other station beside the above would have the rights to broadcast the matches.

If you are close to the matter, you would have read that it was a dig meant at TV3 which had then been junketing, maneuvering, lobbying and negotiating to get a bite at the of the World Cup broadcast pie.

From what I gather, TV3 has done all they have to do in terms of paying the penalty for pulling out when it looked like Ghana would not qualify and also paid the rights to be included in the broadcast.

The sticky point for TV3 was that they could only be allowed to pick the commercial feed of the consortium and that they would be giving a very small window to sell their own.

It dragged the deal till there was a final compromise, which compromise we shall only know when the games begin as both parties seem to be contradicting each other.

As it is now, the stations that would not show the matches during Brazil 2014 include old horses like Viasat1, TV Africa, the fastest rising TV station UTV (as someone said tongue-in-cheek, if football was Telenovela they probably would have bought the right) and the Multimedia Group’s Multi TV.

The broadcast of the matches aside, I am very certain that there will be a glut of station own productions and independently produced television content that would like to leverage the World Cup via analysis, behind the scenes, interviews and many more.

What advertisers would do is to seek which of these programmes and on which channels will best bring out their propositions and which best will talk to their target audience in the most relevant manner.

Remember that whatever would be done should, be able to break through the clutter and be seen during the period. (Hopefully next week we shall talk about some of the programmes to watch on which stations).

As I have written before, radio broadcast rights are also vested in the consortium and those that wish to broadcast need to buy the rights to do so. Broadcast here means runnin commentary on the matches or even trying to comment on them as the match goes on.

I have a belief though that as intransigent as the radio stations in Ghana are, they will steal the feed to broadcast. There are over 250 radio stations across the country and so how will they be monitored? Even in Accra, some stations have violated rights to broadcast many times overs. Just try listening to some stations on Champions League match days.

All too soon the World Cup will be upon us and our Black Stars will be in Brazil to do us proud again. We are in a very tough group with USA, Germany and Portugal but the “young men” and their handlers have assured us of doing their best to advance from the group to the next stage and beyond and we cannot but wish them well.

I wrote in March that “some of our compatriots will be there to cheer the Stars on, some will also be in Brazil as “tourists” walking on the world famous Copa Cabana beach to ogle at scantily attired blondes (once in a life time opportunity) and yet others will use it to strike business deals.”

However, the majority of us will be home in Ghana and we are thankful that some people have thought about it to bring us the matches on TV, radio and other places where we can be part of the greatest single sport event in the world!

As you put yourself in the mood of the World Cup think deeply about the ongoing Coca-Cola campaign deeply and decide which football fan you are.

Get into the groove, get into the move and get into whatever it is you want to get into and let’s celebrate