On Sunday, 13 July 2014, the final of the FIFA World Cup took place. In South Africa, the event was broadcast live on SABC1 and also on Supersport, who beamed the event to the whole Sub-Saharan Africa. Here is a review of the coverage on both channels, as well as on the news c hannels that provided considerable coverage of the event.
Supersport
Though the broadcaster had build up throughout their World Cup Live slot from 1pm-4pm, their "offical" buildup started at 18:30 CAT with Robert Marawa, Neil Andrews and Bonang Matheba (who had changed to a glitzy dress from her more informal wear on World Cup Live) welcoming viewers from the garden studio, referred to as the "Grand Stand" throughout their coverage.
They preview what to expect in tonight's coverage, also stating that they will be previewing SuperSports' other sports that they will be broadcasting in the year to come, including the PSL, rugby and cricket.
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| Supersport's 2014 World Cup final panel. From Left to Right: Sean bartlett, Ernst Middendorp, John Dykes, Sammy Kuffour, Robert Marawa, Gaizka Mendietta and John Barnes |
Following a short video package, Marawa is in Studio 6 with what he describes as a "massive panel." He then says they are going to break tradition and do predictions first as he introduces the panel. Sammy Kuffour is the first panelist introduced and states he is breaking tradition and will be supporting Argentina tonight because he just loves Messi. John Barnes is introduced next and he says the tournament has been better than expected. Ernst Middendorp and Gaizka Mendieta are introduced next, followed by Shaun Bartlett and John Dykes, who says they are going to "make things serious", are at the touchscreen. Throughout their introduction, and intermittently throughout the broadcast, they would cut to live visuals from the various fanparks.
They then throw back to Neil, who is sitting on the little stage in the "grandstand", and is extra perky tonight working his audience, is joined by Bradley Carnell as they also do a short preview. Bradley I felt deserved to be a part of the main panel as he has been Supersports' main Bundeliga analyst (the domestic league of Germany, one of the finalists) and really provides esxceptional insight. As one would thus expect, their discussion has a German focus
Bonang is standing by with illusionist Ilan Smith, who is going to predict the outcome of tonight's match, puts it in an envelop, which is subsequently attached to a shoe which is in turn padlocked into a glass box and delivered to the main studio where it will sit alongside Marawa for the greater part of tonight's coverage.I felt this segment could have been produced more excitingly and not as draging as it did. As someone that initially did not find this exciting (though I eventually did), I felt as if what was the point in the whole thing?
(18:53-First Ad break, which is quite late considering how often they take breaks during coverage)
This was where things went for a down turn. While SABC1 was in the middle of what I thought was exceptional buildup to the Closing Ceremony, Supersport decided that the pay channel needed to start a whole long informercial on what felt like all of their upcoming sporting events, nearly blocking out the worldcup completely for what seemed like just way too long.
The first of these promotional clips was for their coverage of the various European football leagues. It started with a video package , followed by start dates then a discussion between Neil Andrews, who now has John Dykes Bradley Carnell and John Barnes with him to discuss these leagues. John Dykes then highlighted his stay in SA, followed by preview discussion of English Premier League. He also discussed the production side of things, mentioning they will have a brand new studio (the previous one was used for one season), though he later stated it wont be as big as the Supersport one, and thatthey plan on having more current Premier League coaches on their panel this season, last season they had four. Bradley Carnell then talks about Bundesliga, followed by Neil Andrews who says Supersport plans on covering "all" Afcon Qualifiers live, which doesn't seem very realistic.
Following this, the studio panel reminded viewers that this is actually a World Cup Final Build Up and not a way for Supersport to advertise themselves in the hopes of retaining viewers who got DStv just for the world cup by now discussing standout players in the World Cup.
This didn't last too long as Marawa then plugged a video hyping the channels' Rugby plans, followed
A video promoting Supersports' rugby coverage, followed by Marawa highlighting upcoming fixtures then Neil talking to Owen Nkumane, a Supersport rugby personality, while Bradley Carnell sat uninterested behind him.
Finally, there was a short buildup to the closing closing ceremony, which paled in comparison to the exceptional Closing Ceremony Build Up that was provided on SABC1, one of the few times the free-to-air broadcaster provided a better quality broadcast than the paytv broadcaster
The actual closing ceremony aired next. The sound of the closing ceremony was terrible as Supersport did not seem to have access to the actual audio feed of the music, only the stadium sounds, meaning viewers were unable to hear the singers actually singing onstage, yet again providing a subpar broadcast compared to the public broadcaster.[Side note: Supersport had a mess up with the closing ceremony in 2010 as well when they did not have Nelson Mandela's appearance live, showing it a few minutes after it had already aired on SABC 1, while the studio presenter acted as if the visuals seen was live]
As if the closing ceremony was a chore for the channel, they put minimal effort into analysing it, instead now doing a promotional set for the South African football tournaments. Neil discussed this with Bloem Celtic coach Ernst Middendorp, followed by what is now the formulaic promotional setup for cricket now again (Neil Andrews then discusses with paul Adams), all wasting away minutes that should have been used to buildup to a World Cup match.
At 20:00 CAT, Neil Andrews and Bonang Matheba sign off from the "grandstand", with Bonang stating that the "official buildup starts now", an hour before the match is to start, shorter than the 90 minutes every other match got afforded. The starting lineups are analysed at the touch screen followe by a very average in studio buildup. They did not have one live crossover to Brazil, because their person on the ground that they usually had doing live links, Carol Tshabalala, was attending the match as a fan.
Following the match, their analysis was purely exceptional. It was really a feel good end of the world cup in studio once all was said and done. Throughout their wrap up, theycontinued having live visuals from Brazil as well. As a soccer fan watching the world cup mainly on SUpersport you have a sort of attachment to the people that you saw more than the soccer players themselves and the ending really provided that "end of the series" feel that one wants. They also did what seems to now be a tradition of doing crossovers to viewing parties in Ghana and Nigeria as well.
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| This glass box contains the shoe to which illusionist Ilan Smith's World Cup Final prediction was attached |
Before they signed off, it was time for the moment of truth:opening the box with the prediction in. They brought the illusionist back in, something he said he would not do had he not gotten the answer correct. Eventually, the envelop was opened and not only did it contain the correct score, but the correct goal scorer and time of goal as well. John Dykes stated that he had seen Dynamo perform a similar trick, to which the illusionist said he is honored to have been compared to Dynamo.
At the end of the broadcast at just before1am, everyone in studio got the opportunity to say goodbye individually and reflect upon the experience. Everyone said they had enjoyed the experience as being a part of a world class broadcast team.
John Barnes stated he will continue being a part of Supersport for the next few years, saying that since he debuted during the 2010 World Cup that he had become part of the furniture there.
John Dykes had an amazing experience in South Africa and is looking forward to covering the English Premier League from their brand new studio in England.
Shaun Bartlett stated that this was his last broadcast as part of the Supersport team as he will be going into coaching fulltime in the upcoming season. He was previously a part of the coverage of all Supersport's local and international football presentations and also a regular on Monday Night Football with Neil Andrews.
Sammy Kuffour said it is back to Ghana for him as well, though he will continue being a part of the UEFA Champions League coverage.
Gaizka Mendieta and Ernst Medendorp, both new to Supersport stated they enjoyed the experience, though neither stated whether they will continue being a part of the broadcaster in the future.
At the end of the broadcaster Marawa signed off with his traditional sign off, Qim Shelele, though everyone joined in for the Shelele for the final time. This was followed by a fading of the lights and the in studio camera stayed on longer than usual, showing the silhouettes of everyone shaking hands at the end of the broadcast.
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CNNI
Throughout the World Cup, CNN has been providing near rolling coverage of the event as the channel continue what now seems like an extremely aggressive expansion of its World Sport programming. They capped off this coverage by airing a one hour live special at 8pm CAT, titled World Sport Live, anchored from Brazil by Alex thomas and Amanda Davies, both of whom have been part of the channel's extensive coverage.The special highlighted the fans and the experience itself more than the game, though there was a bit of buildup and analysis and also recapping previous games. They encouraged social media interaction as well throughout the program. Throughout the rest of the night, the channel provided extensive coverage in the first half hours of all their news programming with a mix of WOrld Cup and other news in the second.
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Local News Channels
Of the local news channels, ANN7 had sports presenters stationed around the country doing live inserts throughout the evening. SABC News covered the World Cup as part of their regularly scheduled programming. Their daily sports show, Sports Live, had an in studio panel previewing the match. eNCA, the only local news channel around for the previous world cup, only covered the final during their regular sports segments. In 2010 they extended their signoff time by half an hour to get reaction to the final, though there was no such coverage this time around.
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SABC1
Thomas Mlambo presented coverage on South Africa's other official broadcaster of the final, SABC1
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Unlike Supersport, SABC 1's on air talent were not under to try and get as much world cup subscribers to continue subscribing after the tournament. As such, they were more relaxed and focussed all their energies on the events and not on promoting other sports.
Their buildup to the closing ceremony was done as well as they would build up to an actual match, highlighting things like how many times Shakira had performed at closing ceremonies and what to expect, in what was a very relaxed conversation. They also stayed nearly completely with live visuals from Brazil, very rarely showing the in studio guys. During the actual closing, the audio quality on the channel was much better than on Supersport.
The opening ceremony was followed by the final epsiode of Kasi to Favelas, hosted byPearl Modiade and Maps Maponyane. They interacted with viewers on Instagram and other social networks intermittently with recap videos.The show was however, cut short to return to the build up
Their post match analysis was decent, but on the short side
However, now Starsat's sports offering, made up of a pair of Fox Sports Channels and StarTimes Sports, is starting to slowly eat away at Supersport's sports rights, meaning only the approximately 100 000 Starsat subscribers have access to sports events like the Women's World Cup, the under 20 World Cup and, from next season, the Bundesliga, among others.
Another major sporting event that is currently taking place that is not being aired on Supersport is the inaugural European Games being held in Baku. However, neither ANN7, eNCA or SABC News will be reporting on that (and neither will 24 hour sports news channel, Supersprt Blitz) because it is being aired on Fox Sports and not Supersport. 
Other reporters for the channel included Thulasizwe Simelane, who was at the Union Buildings where he was the channel's on the ground reporter at the official proceedings while Xoli Mngambi is in Qunu. Lester Kiewit was at the V & A Waterfront and social media editor, Gareth Edwards, covered the Mandela Legacy Cup, which is to be contested between the Proteas and the Springboks.
