Uganda Premier League: Will Azam stand the test?

By Chris Kiwawulo

UGANDA'S football fraternity is awash with news of the fight over the rights to broadcast the country’s super league – whether it should be Azam TV or SuperSport.

This comes at the wake of the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) Super League signing a $1.9m (sh5.4b) sponsorship deal with Azam TV on February 2, 2015, at Serena Hotel in Kampala.

FUFA president Moses Magogo signed on behalf of the football governing body while Azam Media chief executive officer, Rhys Torrington, signed on behalf of Azam TV.

The fight has sucked in local governing bodies with members of the Uganda Super League (USL) headed by Kavuma Kabenge vouching for SuperSport while FUFA is supporting Azam TV. Several super league clubs have also joined the fray by accepting cash from Azam TV as sponsorship packages – each of the 16 top flight teams will receive sh60m annually from Azam.

As the fight gains momentum, New Vision sought to find out whether Azam TV’s sponsorship was sustainable at the backdrop of a domineering SuperSport. Will Azam TV really survive?

New Vision has established that the main man behind Azam media is the same person who had brought Gateway Television (GTV) which competed with SuperSport over broadcast rights before GTV collapsed. The Azam chief (Torrington), was the commercial director of GTV when it launched its services in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in June 2007.

The GTV founder and President Julian McIntyre then said the launch in East Africa was as a result of a major deal they had signed to exclusively carry 80% of the English Premier League football matches.

GTV had two packages; G-Base, costing sh45,000 a month and G-Plus which offered a full bouquet at sh70,000. Dishes and decoders were sold at sh350,000 from the time of the launch on June 29, 2007 up to August 31, 2007 when they started selling them at what the company called a standard price of sh400,000.

But with the stiff competition GTV faced from SuperSport it was a matter of time before GTV folded. On January 30, 2009, stunned GTV subscribers received a short message telling them the channel had gone off air. GTV management revealed it had invested $200m in the business, but blamed the financial and global crisis that caused excessive demands on the business for its demise.

At the time of GTV’s closure, about 10,000 Ugandans had bought the GTV dishes and decoders and some 300 dealers and partners had joined the business in which they all lost billions of Ugandan shillings. FUFA, which had a sh8.8b five-year sponsorship deal with GTV, also lost out.

Subsequently, Supersport in February 2009 took over GTV’s rights to broadcast the English premiership matches and later clinched the deal to air local super league games.

However, unlike the GTV case, Torrington revealed at the signing of the contract with FUFA that; “We have not come here to throw a few dollars and move away. We have come here to stay.” At the same function Magogo dispelled fears of possible legal battles with SuperSport, saying they had made a bold decision to move on and terminated their contract with SuperSport.

But SuperSport, whose contract with FUFA was due to end next year, has described the Azam deal as a breach of contract by FUFA.

“SuperSport International notes with grave concern media reports which indicate that broadcast rights to Ugandan club football have purportedly been sold to another broadcaster in violation of its rights,” a statement from SuperSport read.

SuperSport Uganda General manager Charles Hamya also warned that they would not tolerate any breach of their agreement to broadcast the Ugandan league. As a result, USL’s Kabenge has vowed to take on Azam should they broadcast any match of the Ugandan soccer league.

Around March 2012, Smart TV, another digital pay TV that had signed a deal to telecast Uganda’s super league games, also folded. It was also in direct competition with Supersport. With offices along John Babiha Avenue in Kololo, Smart TV, a subsidiary of Next Generation Broadcasting, became the second digital television to close after stiff competition from Supersport.

Azam responds

When contacted on whether Azam would not collapse like GTV, Torrington said, the Azam TV funding structure was very different from that of GTV.

“Azam is a Tanzanian family business, so there is no need to rely on European venture capital looking for a swift return. GTV invested heavily in the Barclays Premier League and was unable to survive the world financial crisis which saw many good firms fold.”

On Kabenge’s vow to stop Azam from broadcasting premier league games, Torrington said; “this is not an issue for Azam. We have a signed contract with FUFA and FSL (FUFA Super League) in which they warrant they have the rights to both broadcasting and title. We will broadcast the first match on February17.”

Torrington said SuperSport had of recent stopped broadcasting the Ugandan soccer league.