I think you are right.
There are plenty of Norn Iron contributors on this site to correct me if I am wrong but I think there used to be a tournament in that part of the world called, The Milk Cup (or some such thing) and United have been supporting that pretty much since its inception which could well have been in the 60s.
It was a mutually beneficial arrangement of course. The tournament got publicity and found it easier to attract teams and United got to cast the first eye over the next Best, Whiteside or er, Gillespie.
Anyway, it's become something of a tradition that United are represented in Northern Ireland during the off-season and local TV always covers it.
If BBC NI are covering the game because of lical interest, it seems a perfectly reasonable use of public money (to me, anyway) to make the game more widely available on a minor platform.