Felix Awogu,Managing Director spoke on their activities in Nigeria. Excerpts:

What is the relationship between your company and MultiChoice?
Basically, MultiChoice is our parent company; we drive the sport content on the DStv platform. If you trace back, we both belong to a group called Naspers.

So basically, I see MultiChoice Nigeria as our umbrella body.

So when can we say SuperSport was established in Nigeria?

SuperSport came into Nigeria about four years ago when we acquired the rights to broadcast the Nigeria Premier League. Prior to that, I started as a reporter/presenter doing a magazine show called Football Africa in 2005/2006. I was then the only employee of SuperSport in Nigeria. So I basically managed content and stories for SuperSport before we decided to expand our local presence and got the rights to air the Nigeria Premier League and the Nigeria Basketball Federation League.

Looking back, what are some of the highlights of SuperSport’s activities in the past couple of years?

Basically, it is the fact that Nigeria can now boast of world class productions and we can compete with any broadcaster around the world Like I said earlier, a few years ago it used to be just me working for SuperSport Nigeria. But now, we have about 120 highly trained personnel – from broadcasters to cameramen and engineers and so on.

Felix Awogu

So we’ve come a long way in the last five to six years in Nigeria. We now have two  of the most advanced OB Vans for live broadcasts in Nigeria, and when there were issues about importing equipment by the federal government for the last Under 17 World Cup, we came to the rescue and provided our facilities.

SuperSport provides coverage of top international sport from around the world but what is SuperSport doing in the area of developing local sport content in Nigeria?

By and large things are getting better. At some point,  some clubs were not happy about their matches being covered because they wanted to have the opportunity to cheat.  Right now they can all appreciate the exposure, and the fact that there has been a major reduction in the need for players to go out for trials. Now all they need to do is ask SuperSport for footage of their matches and we make it available to them to send to scouts.

This we do for free as part of our contribution to the development of local talent.  Apart from the league we covered the secondary school open championship- Shell cup. It’s all part of our CSI contributions; it costs between N10million and N15million for a live broadcast but we still see the need to make these contributions to youth development.

Are there issues on Premier League broadcast rights here in Nigeria. What about Champions League

There has never been an issue; SuperSport remains the leading sport broadcaster on the continent. Acquiring the English Premier League, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League and so on is all part of our plans to ensure our subscribers are pleased with the sport content on the DStv bouquets. However, our ultimate goal is to develop the local leagues and make them just as exciting and profitable as these foreign properties.

How will you describe the state of development of local sport in Nigeria?

Recently we embarked on the training of sport administrators in Nigeria in conjunction with the WITS Business school and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I will also like to recognize the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Professor Okolo who has been very instrumental to this relationship.

Last year we trained 21 administrators and 15 of them passed the course. People keep asking why we are emphasizing on administrators, but what research has shown us is that once you have a good administrator, it translates to the field of play because they understand the dynamics of what television requires.

So where do you see local sports in the next five years?

It might interest you to note that Nigeria is the second largest exporter of footballers next to Brazil. There is no league in the world where you don’t have at least five Nigerians.  So we believe that with the huge number of talents in Nigeria, all we need it the right level of organization and infrastructure to make it compete favorably with other world class leagues.

The South African league for example is the seventh richest in the world, not because they have better talents, but because they are more organized and have better infrastructure. So we’re working hand in hand with government and sport stakeholders to take our local sports to a world-class level.

Any expectations?

I think Nigerians should expect more and more. Like you mentioned earlier, we’ve won back the rights for the UEFA Champions League, the EPL is ongoing, and our coverage of the local leagues will only get better. We hope Lagos state will soon have an Eko United also to take advantage of the beautiful infrastructure available in the state. So I think if there is any complaint, it will be that people are getting an overdose of world class sport coverage from SuperSport.