Canal plus Rwanda has announced that it has been given the right to broadcast Basketball Africa League (BAL) which kicks off on Sunday May 16 in Kigali.  

Canal plus Rwanda is a subsidiary of Canal plus International. It is a key player in Rwanda’s visual and audio industry.

The highly anticipated tournament is the first professional league of its kind to be run by NBA outside North America, and brings together 12 teams from 12 countries across Africa and is broadcast on Canal+ Sport 1.

Sophie Tchatchoua, the Managing Director of Canal plus Rwanda said that Basketball fans from across the globe will be able to follow the BAL tournament on their screens live on Canal+ Sport 1 from May 16 to May 30.

"NBA decided to have this new competition for Africa. This is big news for the country and Canal plus because we will broadcast it on Canal+ Sport 1.  For Rwf5, 000, every client within Rwanda but also outside Rwanda will have the opportunity to have access and watch this great competition,” she said.

On Sunday, May 16. Patriots, playing on home soil, will take on one of the tournament’s favorites, Nigerian Rivers Hoopers 4:00pm.

Tchatchoua said that on top of broadcasting the tournament to Basketball lovers, they will also have special shows around the Basket Ball Africa League.

"There will be two new shows especially for BAL, one of those is called "BAL action" and there is also "BAL Lemag". There will be several emissions around the BAL. We are very happy to have this new competition on Canal Plus sport at Rwf5,000," she said.

Teams that will take part in BAL are: US Monastir (Tunisia), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Zamalek (Egypt), AS Douanes (Senegal) and AS Salé (Morocco) that gained automatic qualification to the BAL tournament, having been crowned champions in their respective leagues.

The remaining clubs are; home team Patriots, GNBC (Madagascar), AS Police (Mali), FAP (Cameroon), Ferroviário de Maputo (Mozambique) and GS Pétroliers (Algeria) secured their qualifications through qualifying games in both East and West Divisions.

Besides accessing the content at affordable prices through Ikaze bouquet which costs Rwf5, 000 as monthly subscription, others on the market include Zamuka, which costs Rwf10, 000, "Zamuka na Siporo” which goes for Rwf20, 000 and "Ubuki” bouquet which goes for Rwf30, 000 and has all channels.

Ikaze’ monthly subscription gives clients access to over 188 channels at just Rwf5, 000.

"As households are electrified we have to penetrate everywhere, " added Tchatchoua.