Ugandan stars to appear on SuperSport live from London

Jul 22, 2012

In an interview with New Vision, Multichoice Uganda General Manager, Charles Hamya narrates how the digital satellite company has prepared to showcase Ugandan and world talent.

INTERVIEW - It has been a long and winding road to the 2012 Olympics Games.

The journey to arguably the world’s biggest sporting event has been one long road filled with great expectations, and unprecedented joy not only for those athletes that qualified for the greatest show on earth, but for hosts Britain.

trueWith less than 10 days away before the competition starts, unprecedented excitement is already being felt around the country.

In this exclusive interview with New Vision sports writer FRED KAWEESI, Multichoice Uganda General Manager Charles Hamya narrates how the digital satellite company has prepared to showcase Ugandan talent and other world stars.

Qn: To start with, will you be showing us the Games? If yes, on which channels?

Ans: SuperSport is aiming to go higher, faster and further than ever for the broadcast of the 30th Olympic Games, which are starting in London this month with eight dedicated channels on DStv.

DStv Premium subscribers will have access to all Olympic SD channels. The Olympic SD channels will be branded SuperSport Gold (ch 204), SuperSport Silver (ch 205), SuperSport Bronze (ch 206) and SuperSport Spirit (ch 207). DStv HD Premium subscribers will also have access to the HD channels - HD2, HD3, HD4 and HD5, which will also be named Gold, Silver, Bronze and Spirit.

These will each offer 24-hour programming, giving viewers an unprecedented level of coverage.

Qn: What will make this Olympics edition different from the previous Olympics Games?

Ans: Given the scale of the event – 39 disciplines spread across 26 sports over 17 days – SuperSport will not only have eight dedicated channels, four in High Definition and four in Standard Definition, but included will be a new HD channel which is being launched by SuperSport on DStv specifically for the London Games.

This means that Olympic programming will feature on four High Definition and four Standard Definition channels, giving viewers with DStv HD PVR decoders an unsurpassed television experience of London 2012.

Qn: Should we say SuperSport are fully prepared for the tournament? What does it require to broadcast such a huge event?

Ans: Definitely, the Olympics demand excellence from athletes, but for us it also demands excellence as Africa’s leading sports channels. We have channeled considerable resources, time and energy into our Olympic offering for our subscribers.

SuperSport will have 4 dedicated crews following the exploits of all African athletes and also giving insights into stories around the big names at the Games.

Carl Lewis, Ryk Neethling, Wilfred Bungei are a few of the past Olympic greats that will bring all the DStv subscribers the very latest news from London.

On the social mediafront, the SuperSport Facebookand twitter account will be sure to keep all social network fanatics busy with the latest news, results and opinions from the Games.

Qn: SuperSport has promised to show all the games live including several other packages. Does that mean the rest of the programmes will have to be sacrificed to accommodate the games?

Ans: No programming will be affected by coverage of the Games. All other programming will be scheduled on the remainder of the channels leaving our subscribers with a wide variety of sporting programmes to choose from.

Qn: There always seems to be plenty of excitement in the fan parks (Fan Fest). How will we be able to share that in London?

Ans: Apart from the wall-to-wall live action, SuperSport will have two riveting magazine programmes: London Calling, a weekend breakfast show, and Mind the Gap, a daily 15-minute programme. The popular Blitz channel will provide rolling coverage and live update, so subscribers will get to see all the action using different platforms.

Qn: In recent Olympic Games, Uganda has struggled to win any medals in the biggest sporting event. Could this be our moment?

Ans: We celebrate the Olympics every four years, undoubtedly the greatest sporting event in the world that brings the greatest athletes from all disciplines together.

We are proud that we have a contingent of fourteen athletes that will represent Uganda. On DStv’s SuperSport we are proud that we will bring you all those games live, the victories as well as the handover ceremonies.

Should a Ugandan athlete win it would be a pleasure for us to broadcast that victory to the entire world.

Qn: Is there anything else?

Ans: I would also like to urge subscribers to embrace the Olympics and put all their support behind Team Uganda. Subscribers can watch the 2012 London Olympics from 27th July 2012 to 12th August 2012 on SuperSport, your world of champions!

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