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A Supersport cameraman covers a soccer match in this file photo

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
VIEWERS and advertisers were on Tuesday afternoon short-changed during the screening of the Group D African Nations Championship (Chan) opener between Zimbabwe and Zambia on pay per view channel SuperSport 9 as it’s suspected that only feed from a single camera was used to beam the match live.

Producers of the match, Lagardere Sports, a French company with exclusive television and marketing rights to all Caf tournaments, claimed they mounted eight cameras, including two behind the goals at the Umuganda Stadium in Rubavu, Rwanda.

However, the visuals from Tuesday’s match showed that they were coming from one angle, an indication that a single camera was feeding the signal.

Advertising billboards erected on the same side where the camera was mounted could not be beamed, depriving the advertisers of millions of dollars in terms of expected revenue from mileage. It was nevertheless a different case on the SuperSport Select channel as various angles were being beamed.

“There is a shoulder camera on the field to cover the coaches, substitutes, national anthem and additional time board. If you watch the match on RBC, SuperSport or BeInsport, you will have the multi-camera (view) of the match,” said Benoît Fauvet, Lagardere Sports’ television production manager at Rubavu, before asking which channel the Zimbabwe and Zambia match was beamed on.

When told that it was on SuperSport 9, Fauvet promised to institute investigations into the embarrassing gaffe.

If there were eight cameras as claimed, then why were other camera angles not made use of? There should have been use of cameras behind each goal to enable viewers to watch how teams carry the ball out of their own end or from goal kicks and how their movement upfield looks like from behind the attacking team as well as from the point of view of the defending team.

A spokesperson for SuperSport, Sandile Luthuli, said they were not responsible for the production of the visuals.

“SuperSport is broadcasting the Chan tournament, but not producing it. We take the feed as well as commentary from Sports 5 (Lagardere), the producers,” said Luthuli.

Fauvet later sent an email saying SuperSport were only producing matches being played in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

“We’re taking care of the production of the international feed for Caf, who contracted another TV supplier than SuperSport to produce the match in Rubavu. SuperSport is producing the matches in Kigali only,” he said.

Moments later, Fauvet sent video footage of the second Group D match between Uganda and Mali claiming it was actually the first match of the group.

A former ZBC producer said the mistake could have been from SuperSport who picked up a signal from one camera and uploaded it to their satellite.

“I suspect SuperSport took the feed from one camera instead of taking what we call final mix from the video mixer in the OB van back in Rubavu. There’s nowhere a producer could make such a mistake where so much money has been invested. The broadcaster might have picked the wrong signal, not the producer sending a single camera for such an important match,” said the former producer.

Lagardere last year extended its partnership with Caf for a further 12 years, in a deal that is believed to be worth $1 billion.