DSTV changing lives

By ROBIN TOSKIN

During a DSTV/Supersport Super Cup press conference, Supersport Head of Africa Gary Rathbone said he no longer writes speeches when talking about Kenyan football.

"It is now all written in my heart," Rathbone said. That could pass for a marketing gimmick. Be that as it may, for young Kenyans involved in producing live Kenyan Premier League matches, Supersport’s arrival in Kenya has been a life-changing experience.

When KPL champions Ulinzi Stars take on Sofapaka today in DSTV/Supersport Super Cup, 27 of the 33 personnel involved in the broadcast of the season’s curtain raiser will be Kenyan men and women.

"My life will never be the same again. Supersport has changed my life completely in terms of skill, professionalism, income and I have visited 11 countries, places I would never have visited," Danito Kamau, one of the TV camera crew, told FeverPitch ahead of the new season.

Kamau is just one of the young Kenyan’s making their mark in top-level TV live shooting and Rathbone remains bullish that it is Supersport’s desire that production of the KPL live matches should be by Kenyans in the long term.

Perfect tonic

"We have done it in Nigeria and it will happen in Kenya. We are continuously training them, exposing them to other settings including the German Bundesliga. Some of them have been to business schools in London and South Africa as part of our goal that they can manage their league," Rathbone said.

Francis Ngira, another of the camera men, said, "thanks to Supersport, I’m re-united with what I like most; football. I always wanted to be a professional footballer, but my mother had other ideas. She wanted me to go to school, but I always drifted into football. Now I work for Supersport where the kind of exposure I have got and the sophisticated equipment at my disposal, not many people get to work with," Ngira said.

Kenya boasts a vibrant media industry in Africa, but limited number of sports-oriented media houses means talent coming through colleges is not absorbed.

However, several brains like those behind Nusu Nusu Production owned by producers Mark Moss and Fareed Khimani are ahead of the game and their partnership with Multichoice has made it easier to broadcast live local matches across Africa.

"Up to 200 people either work directly or indirectly with Supersport. There are many more spill-overs such as creation of companies such as Nusu Nusu. At the end, if, say Supersport pulls out, the work force is capable of working for ESPN, Al Jazeera, BBC and any other because of the world class training gained through Supersport," Moss said.

Multichoice Kenya General Manager Stephen Isaboke told FeverPitch that the company is committed to bringing local content to Kenyans, including the English Premier League.

"And what a better way if that local content is brought by Kenyans themselves. It is for the same reason that we complement Supersport’s efforts by lowering the cost of decoders to enable more people access our products," Isaboke said.

Max Tsunungwa, Supersport’s Executive Producer Africa, hailed the partnership saying it is a worthy cause.

"To come here and see this partnership work. To see Kenyans producing local content at world class standards for Kenyan people is wonderful," Tsunungwa said.

Several Kenyan cameramen were part of the team that covered the 2009 Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria.

And with Supersport having recently signed an extension of the KPL deal to 2015, the future of the young Kenyans can only get better.