28 games live on Eswatini TV

MBABANE – The country’s national broadcaster, Eswatini TV, has declared its readiness to showcase the biggest sporting event in the world from this coming Sunday.

This is the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which will be staged in Qatar. Through simulcast, Eswatini TV will broadcast at least 28 of the 64 matches live. The television station partnered with Eswatini Mobile and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in a deal that is reported to be worth over E0.5 million to ensure local viewers do not miss out on the World Cup.

In a press briefing at the Eswatini TV Boardroom yesterday, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Andreas Dlamini, shared that the games would be showcased on the traditional television platforms not on YouTube. There would be two dedicated channels, with the second one mainly for repeats.

“We’ll broadcast selected games but every day of the tournament, we’ll showcase one of the live games.

“We’ll also have fan parks and the first stop will be at the Prince of Wales of Ground in Mbabane on Sunday. We’ll have another one on the following Sunday at the same venue, before moving to Simunye. Manzini will also be visited,” he said.

Editor-in-Chief, John Molelekeng, assured that the selected games would include all matches of the five national teams representing the African continent.

Teams

Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal are the African teams in Qatar.

“Broadcast rights cost an arm and a leg, so we can’t broadcast all the games,” said Molelekeng.

The first live game will be between hosts Qatar and Ecuador on Sunday at 6pm.

Expectedly, the broadcast of the game would affect the normal programming schedule, as some of the programmes would take a backseat. It was announced that news would continue to be broadcast.

Mphumelelo Mnisi, who is Head of Productions, as well as Sakhile Dlamini from the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) were also part of the press briefing. The latter said those using a set top box, which is known as Sigujana in vernacular, should contact his office on 7855 9579 or 2404 6440 if they would encounter challenges.

AFRICAN TEAMS OPENING FIXTURES:

Monday, November 21

Senegal vs Netherlands

Tuesday, November 22

Denmark vs Tunisia

Wednesday, November 23 6pm 3pm