For those planning on watching the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, in addition to the traditional means of doing that – terrestrial and satellite TV – they will be able to do so online. This is after Showmax, a Multichoice subsidiary, announced that plans are in place to air the popular global football showcase that comes once every four years, on its platform.
“The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be available to stream live on Showmax Pro with English commentary for subscribers across the African continent (Sub-Saharan Africa), courtesy of SuperSport,” a statement from the company reads.
Showmax has a pro tier, Showmax Pro, which has been offering live sports, news and entertainment channels. For most people, its offering of sporting content, especially the English Premier League, is what it is well known for. It does offer live viewership of games from other football leagues as well as other live and archived on-demand sporting content.
The popular UEFA Champions League still remains exclusive to viewers in select countries (South Africa, Lesotho and Mauritius).
The 2022 football World Cup, organized by FIFA, takes place in 5 cities in Qatar from 20th November to 18th December, the first time the tournament has been towards the end of the year. Normally, the football World Cup is staged between June and July after every four years, when most football leagues, whose players feed the various national teams taking part in the tournament, are on a seasonal break.
In addition to the live matches, Showmax Pro subscribers will also be treated to several football and World Cup-related documentaries, features and movies in the run-up to and throughout the period the tournament runs.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will, perhaps, be one of the most streamed tournaments of all time as it comes at a time when online content streaming has taken off and taken root more than at any other time in the history of mankind.
In 2018, the last time the tournament came around, Kenyans could follow select World Cup games live from their smartphones courtesy of a partnership between Safaricom and then on-demand content provider Kwesé-iflix. The latter has since exited the market after Malaysia-based on-demand content company iflix sold its shares to its Southern Africa-based partner, Kwesé, shortly after the end of the 2018 World Cup.
