SuperSport (South African TV channel)

SuperSport

Channel logo as of July 2012
Launched 1988 as Sports segment on M-Net, 1995 as a single complete channel.
Owned by Naspers
Picture format 576i (SDTV 16:9, 4:3)
1080i (HDTV)
Slogan World of champions
Country South Africa
Language English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Portuguese and Zulu
Broadcast area Africa
Affiliates Sky Sports, ESPN
Headquarters Johannesburg, South Africa
Formerly called M-Net SuperSport (1988 to 1994)
Website www.supersport.com
Availability
Terrestrial
M-Net M-Net (as a sports feed during important events)
CSN
Satellite
DStv Channels 200 - 247
IPTV
DStv IPTV Service Channels 200 - 247
Streaming media
www.supersport.com Live SuperSport Streaming online

SuperSport is a South African group of television channels owned by Multichoice and carried on the DStv satellite platform. It provides sports content in South Africa and abroad.[1] It also provides sports coverage in many other African countries.

The channel broadcasts most of the major sporting events and leagues of association football, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf, motorsport, cycling, boxing, wrestling, athletics. It is the former world's biggest broadcaster of live rugby and cricket been overtaken by Sky Sports, and also the world's second biggest Premier League broadcaster, broadcasting matches live and, where possible, in HD through the Premier League's Content Service Sr.[2]

Apart from its satellite channels, SuperSport also feeds content to M-Net, CSN and occasionally to M-Net HD.

History

Born in South Africa, executive Koos Bekker completed his MBA from Columbia University in 1984 and returned to his home country thereafter. During his studies, he had followed the rise of pay television in the United States, convinced that the model could work in South Africa.

Back in South Africa, Bekker convinced Nasionale Pers (now Naspers) of the idea and a consortium was formed with other media companies, including the defunct Perskor, the Argus Group (now Independent Media) and Johnnic Communications (now Avusa). The South African government was persuaded to award M-Net a broadcasting license, as Nasionale Pers's advertising revenue had shrunk dramatically since the launch of television in 1976. Naspers broadly supported the National Party's policies.

In 1986, M-Net was launched as South Africa's first pay-television channel and, along with Canal+, only the second outside of the United States. The channel immediately showed its intention to include sport in its programming lineup, by securing exclusive rights of an important Currie Cup match between Transvaal and Western Province for its first ever broadcast. From 1988, sports coverage on M-Net ran under the banner of M-Net SuperSport.

M-Net SuperSport expanded its range of coverage, including live overseas rugby, cricket, golf, boxing and cycling. Following South Africa's readmission into international cricket, SuperSport scored another marketing coup by securing exclusive rights to the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

When rugby turned professional in 1995, a deal was struck between the newly formed SANZAR and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. In South Africa, SuperSport was awarded exclusive broadcasting rights of the Super 12 competition, as well as the Tri Nations. Following this deal, rugby gradually ceased broadcasting on the SABC, while SuperSport became a carrier of live rugby broadcasts.

At the same time, Naspers expanded its pay-television operations to a satellite carrier. With the launch of DStv in 1995, SuperSport became a multi-channel network and an independent brand, although it was still primarily associated with M-Net. The network made full use of the satellite platform to expand its sports offering: For the Olympic Games, six channels are generally used for live events.

In 2007, the SABC lost its exclusive rights to the local Premier Soccer League (PSL) to SuperSport, in a deal worth R1.6 billion. The deal stipulated that some matches had to be shared with the SABC. In August 2011, SuperSport renewed its contract with the PSL for another five years.

Since 2011, SuperSport's association with M-Net began to fade, when M-Net split its terrestrial feed from its DStv channel. DStv viewers can no longer watch sports events on M-Net, although terrestrial subscribers still get feeds on the main channel, as well as the Community Services Network (CSN).

A Premier Soccer League team bears the channel's name. SuperSport United F.C. was originally known as Pretoria City but bought by M-Net in 1995 after which it was renamed.

List of channels

SuperSport 1

SuperSport 1 is the channel which focuses mainly on rugby. It shows all South African rugby matches live. SuperSport 1 also broadcasts live golf

SuperSport 2

SuperSport 2 primarily shows Cricket. All international cricket involving the South African national cricket team, as well as certain domestic cricket, is shown on this channel. This channel also broadcasts other sport such as Motorsports including Formula One and World Rally Championship, motorcycle racing including MotoGP and the Superbike World Championship and Cycling.

SuperSport 3

SuperSport 3 is a 24-hour soccer channel, the first of its kind in Africa. SuperSport has the exclusive rights of telecasting the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup and other major soccer tournaments.

SuperSport 4

SuperSport 4 focuses mainly on domestic soccer matches in South Africa and other African countries through live broadcasts, magazine shows and highlights. They now show Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday as part of their "Supa Diski" shows. The channel also shows many PSL themed news and talk shows under the "PSL TV" brand. These shows air at least one new show nightly. They include Exxtra Time, Back Pages, Mzansi Legends, National First Division Show, PSL News, Thursday Night Live With Robert Marawa, Love PSL and various club magazine shows. All local matches have Zulu with most having Sotho as well.

As this channel is locally orientated and is included on the Compact bouquet.

SuperSport 5

SuperSport 5 broadcasts different sports such as Golf, Motorsport, Tennis, swimming, athletics etc. It shows live as well as highlights. It also shows soccer when there is an overflow from the Supersport 3 channel.

SuperSport 6

SuperSport 6 is an alternate Cricket channel. When there are two or more cricket matches at the same time, the other match is shown on this channel. It also broadcasts Motorsport, athletics and a variety of other sports and magazIne programmes.

SuperSport 7

SuperSport 7 also broadcasts a variety of sports including boxing, soccer, athletics, Motorsport, Golf, Tennis and WWE (except for South Africa). It broadcasts matches live as well as shows and highlights. SuperSport 7 also broadcasts La Liga and Premier League matches.

SuperSport 8

SuperSport 8 primarily broadcasts locally produced highlights packages of the minor sports, including Mountainbiking, Fishing, Trail Running & Motorsport, amongst others. It is used as an overflow channel and broadcasts in Standard Definition.

SuperSport Blitz

SuperSport Blitz is the channel which broadcasts news and updates regarding different sports from around the world. It was originally called Supersport Update with news in a longer format to that which it is now. This channel is designed to update the people who missed the live broadcasts. They broadcast updates regarding scores and results of matches. When there is more than one PSL match available, the other will be shown here.

SuperSport Maximo

SuperSport Maximo is the Portuguese-language channel that broadcasts the same events from the other SuperSport channels, available mainly all the countries of the Lusophone Africa, but also in other African countries including South Africa (only for SuperSport Maximo 1).

Broadcasting rights

Multi-sport events

Cricket

Domestic

International

Soccer

Domestic

International

Rugby

Golf

Tennis

Motorsport

Netball

Cycling

Boxing

References

  1. ↑ "Ten Sports, Supersport sign multi-year digital content partnership". Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  2. ↑ "SuperSport wins South African contracts". Retrieved 2010-09-04.

External links

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