The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | MOSES MAGOGO | COMMENT | My experience is that leadership is about seeing tomorrow from the position of today. Humanity naturally resists change and introducing new ideas definitely meets a lot of resistance of moving from the comfort zone. It is also true that you cannot achieve what you have failed to achieve over years using the same means.
When I first said that Football today needs people to provide the brains more than the money, I was quoted out context, ridiculed and my comments were politicized to mean to target certain individuals. As a leader I had seen what tomorrow can bring and here we are.
I am very proud that today many voices have joined my call and belief that Ugandan Football can generate its own money if brains are put to use
However, in the days of liberalized media and the advent of Social Media where everyone has direct access to masses without control of quality of content, a new challenge has emerged of a few individuals positioning themselves to claim to understand what they have no idea about.
I am an Engineer and I can never criticize nor challenge a surgeon. This is what professionalism calls for. Many pundits and bloggers with the experience of watching television football have become experts of Broadcasting Business. I have found it prudent to share my one cent of understanding;
Football eMedia Business is a huge industry that is employing many people and making profits for those involved. It is a new thing in Uganda and definitely not many people understand the concept
There are 6 Roles involved to make the business a going concern
Role-1: Rights Owners
FUFA, Clubs and the Athletes create the sport of football that is loved and followed by many people. The modern game now demands lots of monies to identify, nurture, prepare and present players or teams that entertain fans. Therefore the owners of the sport have the treasure of the ownership of a product (Media Rights) that can be sold to masses. Therefore Role-1 is to allow other parties to record the proceedings of the matches.
Role-2: Production
Using Media (Television, Radio and Internet), proceedings of a match are brought to the fans wherever they may be. Rights are useless if not commercialized. Role-2 is played by the Production team that uses the Cameras, and related equipment to capture the proceedings of the matches in textual, pictorial, audio and video formats. It is at this point that football has become what is called a signal.
Role-3 Transmission
The signal that is created at the match venues has no commercial value if not transmitted for the access of the fans. Transmitting a signal from one part of the world or country to the other takes it through several hands. There is a whole engineering of transmission that will ensure quality and timely reception of the signal is achieved. This is when High-Definition, Digital and Satellite terminologies come into play.
Role-4 Broadcast
There is need for the mass media channels to broadcast the signal to the intended recipients. Radios, Internet (Streaming) and Television are the commonly used channels.
Role-5 Marketing and Sales
Taking football for the fans to watch on Television or listen to on radio does not make commercial value to the product chain until commercial partners that pay are brought on board. It is therefore paramount that marketing and sales efforts must be put in place like any other business to get the money. Professionals must be recruited to play this role
Role-6: The Consumers Role
Because of the popularity of football, many companies would love to position their brand and sales messages to the football fans consuming football off the media. Most times the fans pay subscription fees for the access to football channels. This is the source of money to football that is used to pay all value addition entities along the product production chain and also pay FUFA, the Clubs and Players to reinvest into making a better product
The Current Trends
The old school football persons still don’t understand that every player in the product chain must be paid. Many people are stuck in the era of volunteers who did not have the expertise to make money.
CAF and its Members sold the television rights of the CAF Competitions and Events to French Company called “Lagardere”. This company does not own any TV Channel nor any Camera but has turned around CAF & Its Members Revenues tenfold.
Let us welcome Sports Broadcasting, an indigenous Ugandan Company that has the vision to put Ugandan Sport to the living rooms of Ugandans. They don’t have to own a channel when Bukedde, UBC, NTV, NBS, BBS are in the business of Channels. Is it not that simple?
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Magogo is the President of FUFA
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