MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 92

SPORTS MARKETING
ONE BROADCASTER’S
LOSS IS ANOTHER’S
MEAT: SUPERSPORTS VS
KWESE SPORTS
By Richard Wanjohi
Exit the Bok - SuperSports
T
he announcement in April
2017 that SuperSport was
closing down its Kenyan
operation caught many sports
enthusiasts by surprise.
Coming close to the cancellation of
the Kenyan Premier League matches
live coverage along with magazine
programmes, this marked the bitter
end to a sweet and sour relationship
of Naspers-owned SuperSport with
football administrators in Kenya.
While the finer details are being
worked, the effect of SuperSport’s
closure in the short-term means
the loss of hundreds of jobs from
production crew to sports casters
and other staff. The genesis of the
footballing rights cancellation
seems to have precipitated to
disagreements with Football Kenya
Federation officials.
The latter had insisted on an
expanded league while Kenya
Premier League Limited
honchos held their ground on
maintaining the status quo. In
the end both parties have lost
with the Kenyan football none
‘‘ Kenya’s breadth and wealth of talent in
other sporting disciplines such as rugby,
athletics and cricket seemed to resonate
well with the executives and looked like
viable prospects on paper. This has now
been superseded and all that remains are the
snippets of the local scene from a skeletal staff
operating from the broadcaster’s headquarters
on Ngong Road.’’
90 MAL 18/17 ISSUE
the poorer of the two parties.
Football had been the anchor of
the SA owned outfit expansion in
Kenya and indeed in the region.
Having lost the other 2 East African
countries in the last 5 years, Kenya
remained as the only hope of
progress for the sports broadcaster.
Being the most vibrant of the other
Eastern African countries as well
as the major sporting powerhouse,
it was only fair for it to host the
broadcaster’s offices as well as
production houses.
Kenya’s breadth and wealth of
talent in other sporting disciplines
such as rugby, athletics and cricket
seemed to resonate well with the
executives and looked like viable
prospects on paper. This has now
been superseded and all that remains
are the snippets of the local scene
from a skeletal staff operating from
the broadcaster’s headquarters on
Ngong Road.
The competition from Azam TV
domiciled in Dar-es-Salaam,
Tanzania which owns the rights
to the Tanzanian and Ugandan
football leagues did not help matters