CONNECTING SPORT FANS AROUND AFRICA WITH SUPERSPORT SCHOOLS

BACKGROUND

Technological advancements in sports and media along with the growing popularity of personalised casting as a global trend have led to an increase in demand for live sports content. This is especially true for youth sports as parents and families seek to be more involved in the development of their children.

THE PARTNER

SuperSport is the largest sports investor on the African continent with expertise in broadcasting local and international events. It is part of the MultiChoice Group, Africa’s leading entertainment company.

SuperSport has a proud history of developing and supporting various sports across the continent by investing, broadcasting, and commercialising them. This has led to the inception of SuperSport Schools, the foundation for building and developing African sporting nations.

OBJECTIVES

Make live school sports content available and accessible throughout South Africa
Provide an all-in-one solution for democratising and aggregating school sport events and competitions.
Attract sponsors and commercial partners for monetisation.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGE

South Africa’s population is dispersed across a vast geographical landscape. The problem is exacerbated in rural areas. As a result, many areas of the country suffer from unstable Internet coverage and bandwidth. Additionally, some areas are remote and hard to reach due to challenging topography or security concerns. Therefore, installations and setups can be difficult to execute.

THE STREAMING PLATFORM SOLUTION

Pixellot partnered with ITV Africa and Nashua, a leading provider of integrated business solutions to build and support SuperSport Schools. This was done by providing the camera systems to produce the games, build the OTT, and provide the user management platform for analytics and team optimisation. The partnership with the local infrastructure and communications company has circumvented the topography/security issues and led to a successful rollout by minimising possible obstacles. Pixellot’s products have a low bandwidth requirement which provides great results in low-coverage areas. More than 130 systems were installed to date with an additional 100 scheduled to be deployed in the coming months.

OUTCOME

Following a preliminary testing phase, SuperSport Schools is growing rapidly and exponentially, covering over 600 schools so far. The gain in popularity has so far resulted in +200,000 unique subscribers and is projected to continue growing. User activity has translated into over 3 million views to date*

*Numbers were taken from Nielsen reports in order to ensure fidelity and credibility.

Marc Jury, CEO of SuperSport

“One of the biggest inhibitors for broadcasting more sports, at whatever level, is the cost of production. Pixellots AI-based technology is pretty amazing in that you effectively have one camera that you can seat on top of the sports field, and it uses artificial intelligence to track the ball. So you no longer need multiple camera people to be at any one particular venue.”

Lukhayo Am, South African National Rugby Team, Brand Ambassador for SuperSport Schools

“This is a game changer. I remember when I was young, all I wanted was exposure, to be seen, but back then it wasn’t a possibility. As a rugby player who wanted to be a professional athlete, it was a long road to get to where I wanted to be. I think being spotted at a young age given the opportunity to develop as an athlete will play a huge role in developing our future champions. I know what it feels like when you are not seen and you don’t have a stage to display your talents. Giving opportunities and grooming young talents will change their lives.”