Slow motion replays in Uganda’s soccer league tell their own story

Traditional pay-TV services can add to their roster of attractions the draw or lure of a topsy-turvy title race in Uganda's top flight football league.

Just this week, StarTimes (Fufa’s broadcasting partner in the live sports distribution business) used the linear environment at its disposal to relay Kitara FC's last-gasp win away to Express FC.

That dramatic win was sandwiched by a couple of identical one-all stalemates, both of which were beamed into living rooms to meet consumer desires for control.Of the StarTimes remote control, that is.

It is highly probable that either Vipers SC's lapse in concentration against Maroons FC or the so-called ‘ghost goal’ that earned SC Villa a share of the spoils with Bright Stars came up for discussion during coffee breaks at work.

For those of us who were not able to watch the matches in person—and there are a great deal of us, by the way—we owe linear TV a debt of gratitude. It might be becoming obsolete elsewhere, but here in Uganda the ‘fossil’ continues to maintain a sense of matter under strain.

The strain elsewhere has culminated in sports fans’ desire for greater control over the live experience. This has moved a sizeable number of them from linear TV to non-linear media.

Sports fans in the global north particularly love the latter because it grants them access to replay controls. These essentially range from slow motion options to the pretty cool ability to switch between camera angles.

Uganda is, educated guesses will tell you, still light years away from tailoring packages via streaming services that hold out such individualised experiences.

Yet, as witnessed this week, linear TV keeps making heavy weather of the basics. Back to one of the previously mentioned discussions that dominated coffee breaks this week—the goal that restored parity for Villa against Bright Stars. Did the ball really cross the line?

The slow motion and camera angles that were made available to viewers like your columnist were not quite conclusive. Not quite clear-cut, as a matter of fact. 

This was, in fact, a classic case of lightning striking twice. Last November, Muhammad Shaban was adjudged to have fired KCCA FC into a two-goal lead against Vipers.

Jack Komakech—the Venoms’ netminder—was convinced he had just about done enough to ensure that the ball did not cross the line in its entirety. The grainy images that linear TV played back left us none the wiser. 

Even in the absence of the video assistant referee  or VAR, there are certain elements that linear TV should be able to bring to the table to guide discussions and debate.

It is a shame that the threshold that has been set in Uganda is worryingly low. Even worse is the fact that any remote chance for improvement, looking from the outside in, appears to be a stretch.

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At this juncture, the contrast with the viewing experience offered at the ongoing Basketball Africa League or Bal Nile Conference in Cairo, Egypt, seems inevitable.

City Oilers is representing Uganda in the Egyptian capital, and will come against Al Ahly Benghazi later today (April 27). On Wednesday night, the nine-time reigning Ugandan champions pulled off an 82-81 upset win against the tournament's defending champions—Al Ahly from Cairo; not Benghazi, Libya.

Oilers were clutch down the stretch in the exhaustingly tight contest that—much like other Bal Nile Conference matches—was live-streamed on YouTube.

Of course the curated online experience that the Bal holds out—at no cost—is difficult to replicate in a linear environment. Take the pause and playback options available with a live YouTube feed.

Not so much so the basics like the switch between camera angles during contentious plays. Surely, it is not too much to ask of StarTimes to do this bare minimum with the immaculateness so required. If managers of Uganda's top flight football league intend to scale the heights, as indeed they should, they have to come to the realisation that 21st century consumerism dictates that image is everything.