16 Aug 2018

Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) has agreed a television broadcasting partnership with local production company Baboneng Film Production and Entertainment.

The historic deal will see the company produce television broadcasts of Mascom volleyball league matches and other official activities.

Both organisations have not disclosed the length of their partnership. It is the first time that the local volleyball federation will have an official broadcasting partner.

The company’s chief executive officer Kesebonye Seabelo said during the launch of the partnership in Gaborone on August 15 that the matches would be shown on Maru Sport Channel on DStv as well as the government owned youth channel NOW TV.

Seabelo said they want to expose local volleyball talent through the broadcasting of volleyball matches.

He added that broadcasting matches on television would motivate players which would result in the league becoming competitive.

Seabelo further said they aimed to broadcast more sporting codes in future in order to give players a platform to be seen on television.

“When we talk about television we are talking about a medium which has the ability to grow further our different sporting codes,” he said.

Apart from volleyball, the company recently entered into an agreement with Botswana Football Association (BFA) to broadcast first division matches.

BVF president, Daniel Molaodi said the partnership was a long-term investment which would provide opportunities for the federation and volleyball clubs to market themselves better.

“For us in volleyball we see this partnership as an investment. From our perspective we did not have concerns about any short-term benefits, especially financial ones. We are not going to put pressure on ourselves or our partner to say by next year we want to be totally independent financially because we are comfortable and confident that if both of us could commit to this partnership we would reap results,” said Molaodi.

Molaodi said they had given exclusive rights to Baboneng productions to record and broadcast volleyball matches, congresses and other official activities.

Furthermore, he said the company was given cable and Internet streaming rights.

He said profits accrued from the partnership would be shared equally by the company and the federation.

Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) technical development manager Bobby Gaseitsiwe said the partnership was good for the development of sport.

Gaseitsiwe thanked Baboneng productions for their contribution to the development of sport.

“We appreciate the contribution that you are making for sports development. We hope that you would partner with other sports associations,” said Gaseitsiwe. ENDS