SuperSport Schools received global recognition when it won the Silver Award for ‘Innovation of the Year’ at the annual SportsPro OTT Awards held in Madrid, Spain.
The awards recognise significant achievement in incredible innovations and inspirational strategies across the sports broadcasting and streaming ecosystem. The award highlighted SuperSport Schools’ status as a leading innovator in the world of streaming, where it uses innovative Pixellot AI technology and low-cost multi-camera operations to stream thousands of school and youth sports matches live and on demand, all at no cost to schools and app users.
The final shortlist for the award included some of the best broadcasters and OTT platforms in the world, including Mediapro and LaLiga (who won gold), Warner Bros Discovery, Sky Sports, Videocities, VersusGame, SportTV and BT Sports.
SuperSport Schools GM, Gerhard Steyn said: “This is truly a humbling moment for us as SuperSport Schools to be recognised as being at the leading edge of sport streaming globally. We set out to push the boundaries; to innovate and to change the face of school and youth sport in the country by broadcasting the matches people care about most.
"We have achieved incredible growth and success throughout this year, which is only our first full year in operation. I would like to thank the many passionate people behind who every day make sure we continue to grow school sport around the country and give young athletes a platform to shine.
"I would particularly like to thank the schools, festival organisers and national federations that have shared their amazing content on our platform. School and youth sport is very clearly the sport people care about the most," Steyn continued.
The annual SportsPro OTT awards, which started in 2019, acknowledged and celebrated broadcasters across the globe in 17 categories at this year’s event, which was their biggest yet. The awards saw a record number of entries for the 2022 edition, which created competition and growth in the OTT industry. An impartial judging panel including representatives from Microsoft, European Tour, and Fifa among others were on hand to select the winners.
2022 has been a ground-breaking year for SuperSport Schools, which saw it passing over 275 000 app downloads and 18 million cumulative video views across its broadcast and streaming platforms. Other key highlights of the year include the broadcast of 33 sporting codes, including gymnastics, wrestling, cross country and athletics for the first time and the coverage of over 27 000 live matches.
“A special thank you to all stakeholders and subscribers for making sure that SuperSport Schools remains a force within the school and youth sport industry. We could not have done it without the support of Nashua, our enablement partner, Pixellot, our tech partner and several key sponsors who have invested in our vision including Spar, Outsurance, AirLink, Bluu Car Rental and Wildeklawer,” Steyn concluded.
In December, SuperSport Schools will be streaming the annual Standard Bank Boat Race, all the Cricket SA boys and girls national weeks as well as Schools Water Polo SA Nationals from Durban.