Wednesday, 14 june 2006

School Plasmas Become Football Cinemas

The Education Media Agency (EMA) has approved the screening of the 18th World Cup at 450 schools across the country that have plasma screen televisions.

The screens have been prepared for this purpose by the joint efforts of experts from the Ethiopian Radio and Television Enterprise, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) and Ethiopian Television (ETV).

The work in preparation for the football championships was done last week.

The EMA has 8,000 plasma screens that have been set up in 450 schools across the country. The Ethiopian government purchased plasma televisions at a cost of quarter a billion Birr with the intention of conducting uniform courses at schools throughout the country.

The Japanese Maruben Trading supplied the Panasonic TV sets to the government; 825 of which were allocated to Woreda Administrations. Schools across Addis Abeba are home to 300 sets while the remaining were sent to schools in woredas across the country.

This is the first time that the plasma screens have been used for football purposes. Previously the screens were used to host a national teachers conference at which high level officials made speeches from the capital that were transmitted to eight of the 10 regions.

Students, teachers, and residents of areas that do not have ETV coverage will be able to converge at the schools to watch the tournament.

Sources at the EMA told Fortune that the Agency would continue to provide educational screenings on the eight channels that are available to it.

“It is trying to work out a way that all of the games will be screened without affecting the schoolwork of the children,” said the source.

Having gained recognition as an enterprise in 1966, the EMA has been broadcasting educational programs on the radio and on television. The decision on the part of the Agency to broadcast the World Cup makes Ethiopian Television a beneficiary of financial gains, according to the source.

ETV sold the sponsorship rights for the tournament to the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) for a 1.4 million Br price tag. Despite the sale it will still be earning money for the airtime that it is renting out to advertisers.

An expert in the advertising sector told Fortune that the EFF would be earning more than 10 million Br.

“This is a good opportunity to use the funds to increase the quality of the football sector in the country,” said the expert.

Source: Addis Fortune