08 Dec 2020

 Botswana Television (Btv) and Baboneng Film Production have entered into a one-year agreement for sport content.

In an interview on December 7, Baboneng Film Production founder and managing director, Kesebonye Seabelo pointed out that the agreement was that the film production compnay would provide Btv with content, be it live or pre-recorded matches in exchange for airtime. 

He pointed out that the production company would then generate revenue through advertisers and sponsors, which they would then after subtracting production costs share with sporting codes (50-50).

“The reason for sharing profits with sporting codes was to boost them financially besides giving them exposure,” he said. 

Already, he indicated that they had signed exclusive rights with sporting codes such as athletics, boxing, cricket, volleyball, table tennis, badminton and football third division, adding that most of them had not been receiving television coverage. 

“We felt they were disadvantaged taking into consideration that television gives mileage to sporting codes, which eventually lead to growth of sports,” he said.

Seabelo noted that Baboneng Film Production was the first local company to provide outside live broadcast, adding that in 2018, they did a live broadcast of BTC Charity Cup Final for Btv, which  he said was well executed.  

“Btv gave us this game as a trial but they were happy with the end results,” he added.

In 2019, he said they were the first local production company to be given CAF game rights by Township Rollers, adding that the agreement benefitted all concerned parties, Rollers, Btv and Baboneng Film Production, financially. 

“This shows that we have the capacity to grow local sport. 

I believe it was the first time for a local football team to play their game and get paid for the rights of the game,” he said.

Seabelo assured supporters that they would bring games to them in the comfort of their homes, since supporters were not allowed due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

He further appealed to different organisations to come on board as sponsors to assist in growing  sporting codes, adding that they were currently financing their  production.

According to Btv’s head of sport, Edson Malebane, Baboneng Film Production was their strategic partner. 

He indicated that Btv did not have the capacity to cover all sporting codes especially when football league was on hence they agreed with Baboneng Film Production’s proposal. 

He highlighted that Btv would incur costs when uplinking to the satellite as there were costs attached to that. Ends