Felix Awogu, general manager, SuperSports sport content on DSTV that has contributed to the development of sport in Nigeria. He spearheaded the broadcast of Nigerian Premier League on SuportSport. He spoke to Hilary Okeke on different initiatives the sport content provider is doing towards sport development in the country.

SuperSport’s Interest in Nigerian Premier League?
It all started about three-and-a-half years ago when SuperSport decided to play a bigger role in the development of sports in Nigeria. Football is a very dominant game, and one special area we decided to make a difference was in the local league. At that point, the local league was comatose. Of course, there was a golden era of Rangers, Shooting Stars, etc. But after a while the vibe seemed to have died down. When the decision to come in had been taken, SuperSport came not as a South African company but as a Nigerian company; a responsible Nigerian company.  We said, ‘Okay, how do we impact on Nigerian sport and turn around the fortune of the Nigerian league?’ We have to assemble a group of people that have the design, the expertise. We said, ‘Well, every year we spend millions and millions of dollars to buy European properties.’  We felt we must develop what’s ours.
We approached the Nigerian Football League under the chairmanship of Chief Oyiuku Obaseki. We started giving exposure to the league, which after a year culminated into our signing a contract because we needed to expose the Nigerian league. Nigeria, incidentally, is the second largest exporter of footballers around the world after Brazil. And you’ll be wondering which league produced the likes of Nwankwo Kanu, Austin Okocha and others?
We thought we should do something. We know it’s going to be gargantuan, a lot of investment, a lot of education and what have you. The next line of action was to start off the business process and it was quite expensive. It cost us about N4 million to broadcast a match and we broadcast two every week, which was really huge. This was not inclusive of other operational costs – the flight, logistics and airtime. We’re talking in the neighbourhood of about N15 million weekly to do a live broadcast. We started it and it soon dawned on us that we could not continue paying them for there was no commensurate sponsorship, because a lot of advertisers believed the league was not developed enough; they’ll rather invest in the English Premier League. We bore the brunt.
Investment in Nigeria Sports Development
It is justifiable to invest in sport development. In spite of the challenges, we realized the strategic importance of our league and, once in a while, we prevailed we wanted these matches covered and NTA would say no.  We started to invest in outside broadcast (OB) vans.  That was in 2006. We got the first one, then the second one. And you know OB vans are not cheap. The investment on OB vans is between $5 and $6 million, excluding other operating costs. The OB vans and the studios have been a major investment we have had. We decided to start beaming the Italian Serie A from the Lagos Studio so that Nigerians can start feeling the pulse, and also hire a number of Nigerian professionals: Charles Anazodo, Dan Amokachi and Niyi Oyeleke. We brought them on board. They all work for SuperSport. We also have training programmes for our staff; about 30 of them have been trained – some abroad. We also realized when we came on board that it was very difficult to find Nigerians who could handle a football production that would meet international standard. We had to train them. This, of course, you cannot quantify. That’s an investment you cannot take away.
Now we have Nigerians who are capable of doing any match anywhere in the world. Last year, we had to export Nigerians to Kenya to go and help them with their league. That was an amazing achievement. Now, FIFA doesn’t need to bring their people to do anything; we have trained capable hands, which SuperSport cannot take away from Nigeria. They would remain and sustain the development of sports in the country.
Recent NFL Ban on SuperSport
I think there was a misunderstanding. The management of NFL was not properly briefed. They didn’t understand the import, the fact that we are a major investor – we bring foreign investment into the league. We didn’t have a direct contract with them. And then we have always had structural issue with security. We’ve taken our equipment to places where they were attacked, where the matches were stopped, and we make effort to cover every match. But in trying to cover every match, you have to guarantee security of life, of property; especially the fact that we do work with a few expatriates.
The NFL wanted us to cover a match in South-South Nigeria – Bayelsa United – but the notice was too short, and I did communicate with them that, it is difficult to do that. Rather, we wanted to broadcast two matches in the North and it would be difficult to move our outside broadcast vans within that short notice. And it was an Easter holiday but they didn’t really understand. I think they have now realised that, and have apologized to us.
We broadcast about 2 matches a week. We hope to achieve 54 matches this season. And hopefully, next year we hope to achieve 120 matches.
Sponsorship of Basketball on DStv
We are trying to develop a very unique relationship between MultiChoice Nigeria, SuperSport and the Nigeria Basket Ball Federation, NBBF. What we are trying to do is that MultiChoice is going to be running a DStv League. SuperSport is going to be the production partner. We are investing about one million dollars in this project. I mean to bring basket ball on television, expose the young players, especially those who are going for NBA who don’t have to start paying their flight tickets to America for trials. They can actually have a platform to showcase their talent and of course to have other avenues to market their skills. That’s going to be the value we are bringing to basketball. As soon as the boards are inaugurated (the elections are already taking place), I’m sure in a couple of weeks, we should be able to know who is where and then we can sign a contract and get set for the league to take off.
Future of SuperSport in Nigeria
The irony is SuperSport is not in Nigeria for the short run. We are in for the very long haul. If we were set up to be here for a short time, we won’t invest in the OB vans. We won’t be training hundreds of Nigerians to become capable and able to deliver quality production. We are here for good, we are here to help develop and improve Nigerian football, and Nigerian sports in general. We are here as strategic partner to all sporting associations to help them operate and move to the next level.
Other Areas of SuperSport’s Concentration
Incidentally, we have not only done football, we have done the Glo Half-marathon, we’ve done  golf, we’ve done athletic, the Emir of Katsina Polo – the first time in the history of polo in Nigeria the sport was on television, and other sports. These sports also have a lot of people watching them. We have to meet everybody according to their needs. Of course, football seems to take the centre stage; every other sport will be taken care of.
Property Acquisition for SuperSport on DStv
The issue is that for EPL, even in England, you have to bid for rights. And I know SuperSport celebrates any property. Forget the EPL, or any of its property, we need to bring it to your doorstep. It’s quite an exciting one.  We try to celebrate it. We try to give you all the tidbits of everything that happen. We try to carry you along as we broadcast. We don’t just bring the match and throw it at the audience. We carry a lot of people along; we do a lot of research. We actually do great work in packaging the matches. Of course, I know the EPL, for those who manage to watch the Category B of EPL tend to enjoy the match on SuperSport than anywhere else. Even when we are not broadcasting the match, we are updating you on what is happening in the other games. So, it’s quite interesting.

Bringing Back Category A Matches of EPL to SuperSport
Well, for now we’ve got the La Liga. We have the World Cup; the World Cup is coming and it’s the biggest show on earth; the Confederation Cup is there; Nigeria Under-17 is there. We have the exclusive pay-TV right to broadcast the Under-17 World Cup.

Cost of EPL Properties
First of all, it’s unfortunate that the competition is over-priced. And in the long run, you remember what happened to GTV, the other network in Kenya – they collapsed! You don’t over-price. You must know what the value of the property is. I’m not happy because the Management of EPL think Nigeria is a dumping ground, which is not good for us. We must price the value properly. The right for EPL comes up again for bidding in August; we would bid but we’ll not bid unreasonably. We’ll try as much as we can. If we win back the EPL – that will be fine.
SuperSport’s Content and Concern for Nigeria
The greatest content on SuperSport is the Nigerian League. The Nigerian League is key in the long run. It got to a point, we had to look inward and say, we’ve made a huge investment in the country and there’s no return on investment. We have to work hard to promote the Nigerian league; to bring razzmatazz around the league so that we as Nigerians can start appreciating the league and not look down on it; raising stars, putting money in the pockets of the clubs and Nigeria. Right now, the South African League actually controls more audience than the Premier League. I hope one day it comes to happen in Nigeria that people would rather wait and watch highlights of EPL and troop out to watch our league matches so that we don’t have deviants among youths. We are encouraging young men so that they will be able to feed their families. We, as a nation, must be making conscious effort to start attending games, because we need to encourage these energetic young people who end up becoming breadwinners. These are the major issues we must address now.