Supersport Unveils Cricket World Cup Plans

Supersport, Africa's premier sports broadcaster, has unveiled their coverage plans for the 2015 Cricket World Cup (more than two weeks before the tournament starts, in comparison to two days before AFCON 2015)

As expected, every match will be broadcast live and in High Definition on Supersport 2 (which is available on DStv Mobile as well)

The commentary team will feature the likes of Shaun Pollock and Mpumelelo Mbangwa.

Every match the Proteas play in will have three commentary options: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

Supersport's build up and analysis will be done from their excellent Studio 6 in Johannesburg and will be anchored by HD Ackerman.

He will be joined in studio by the likes of Kepler Wessels, Alviro Peterson, Morné van Wyk, Neil McKenzie, Robin Peterson and Ashwell Prince, among others.

These guys will also be complimented by state of the art touch screen technology and augmented reality, as seen during the Soccer World Cup last year.

There will also be live news updates on Supersport Blitz, Supersport 2 (in the form of a weekly Friday magazine show called Cricket World Cup Special {how creative}) and social media.

Providing the live updates will ne the excellent Mike Haysman, who will be joined by Supersport reporter, Crystal Arnold.

Guests that will be featured on the interviews done from Australia include Mark Nicholas, Rahul Dravid, Tom Moody and Ian Bishop.

Noticeably absent from the information Supersport released is which matches, if any will be shown live on a channel available on DStv's lower-tiered bouquets. With the last World Cup, all Protea games, along with other key games were available to lower-tiered subscribers, along with a daily one hour highlights show.

Supersport Planning Wall to Wall coverage of the 2014 Commonwealth Games Across Multiple Channels

As the 23rd July start date for the 2014 Glasgow Common Wealth Games nears, Supersport has released details on their coverage plans.

The broadcaster plans on having three 24 hour channels dedicated to the Games: Supersport 4, Supersport 5 and Supersport 7, all simulcast in HD. Supersport 9 will also be used as an overflow channel when there are many events happening concurrently.

The games will also be streamed live at Supersport.com. This does, however, create the possibilty that South Africans might be locked out of the Games' free Youtube channel that will stream all the Games live because back at the 2012 Olympics, the whole continent and many other countries were allowed to watch those Games online, but because Supersport held the online rights, South Africans were restricted from watching the live free streams.

Supersport 4, which is available on DStv Compact, Extra and Mobile as well, will be the home of watersports and athletics, the same as it was back at the 2012 Olympic Games. Having coverage of the Commonwealth Games on this channel is greatly welcomed as the channel usually just reruns old PSL matches and magazine shows leading up to the new soccer season.

Supersport 5 will be the broadcaster's main channel. It will air both the opening and closing ceremonies live. It is to air mainly gymnastics and watersports when SS4 has athletics.

Supersport 7 is to be the home of the African teams, but will also house the entire Rugby Sevens tournament as well.

Supersport 9, the only of the channels not available in HD, will not be providing 24 hour coverage, but will providea great deal of live programmiong throughout the day, focussing on sports like weightlifting. It is also available on DStv Compact and Extra as well.

Supersport Select, which is available on all DStv packages excluding EasyView, will air two daily one hour highlights blocks, one of the day's events in general and one dedicated to African nations participation on that day. The time it airs varies from day to day due to the channel having to carry other live sporting events as well.

Rolling coverage will be provided on Supersport Blitz and highlights packages will be added to DStv Catchup regularly.

Supersport's on the ground team in Glasgow will consist of 14 members headed up by Kenya's James Wokabi and South Africa's Crystal Arnold (who just finished an excellent run as part of the broadcasters Soccer World Cup Coverage). South African swimming legend Ryk Neethling, who was part of Supersport's 2012 Olympic Games will provide analysis from Glasgow this time as well.

Supersport Adds even More Personalities to Its Already Star studded World Cup Coverage Line up

Eariler this week, Supersport quietly started rehearsals for its World Cup coverage at its Randburg studios.

Along with the previously announced and advertised names that are big in the soccer industry are local celebrities from other spheres of entertainment.

Included among these is South African singer AKA, who had previously co-hosted gaming show The Verge on Vuzu and an entertainment show on what is now Star One.

AKA and Sizwe taking pics while having their suits fitted

He is joined by  current MTV Base VJ, and without a doubt the diamond in the crown of MTV Africa's  networks, Sizwe Dhlomo, hot off the heels of the relatively successful MTV Africa Music Awards this past weekend.

Be it an audience of thousands or just a rehearsal, the talented Bonang Matheba always brings her A game.

They are joined by the fantastic Bonang Matheba, host of Mzansi Magic's Clash of the Choirs and Top Billing on SABC 3. This is not Bonang's  first World Cup she is covering as she hosted 2010 World Cup magazine show Tjovitjo on SABC 1.

Another local star joining the already impressive list is Namdi Mngoma, a previous host of Mzansi Magic's  All Access and a singer as well and also Nono Cele.

The team of AKA, Bonang Matheba, Siwe Dhlomo, Nono Cele and Namdi Mngoma take a break from  rehearsals for their World Cup show, World Cup Live on Supersport 3, for this beautiful picture.

Together, they, along with Kamza Mbata and Crystal Arnold will be the on screen team responsible for World Cup live, stylized #WorldCupLive,a World Cup magazine show that will air for the duration of the World Cup on Supersport 3 (DStv 203, Simulcast on Supersport 3HD, DStv 213 and DStv Mobile as well). The show is to air every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1pm all the way through to 4:30pm (you see why the necessity for the big team now?).
During what now seems to be a programming block will be other previously announced magazine shows Ola Brazil, Insights, MasterPlan and #FanFest. The last half hour of the show (4pm-4:30pm) will be a casual buildup to that day's matches.

When news of the additioanl talent joining the World Cup team broke, I wondered why Supersport has not promoted these personalities heavily as they did with their other personalities. But then I saw why they did not promote these personalities considering how big their fan bases, at least not in the traditional sense, they left it up to these stars to do it themselves. Combined, they all have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, an audience they have been tweeting to extensively to promote their show, tweeting that costs nothing but reaches the masses and, afterall, the show is being billed as an extremely interactive show, so why not promote it on the platform that will be central to its content in any case?

Either way, not everyone is happy about the selection of the stars, as seen in this tweet:

This #WorldCupLive show...I don't know okes. AKA, Bonang and Sizwe? Uhm, what about the world cup are they gonna be talking bout? The Swag?

— Man Of The Year (@MrGanca) June 10, 2014