by Thinus Ferreira
After having secured and taken over the broadcasting rights from the SABC, SuperSport will be showing and covering South Africa's Comrades Marathon for the first time on Sunday 28 August as a marathon broadcast of its own, stretching 13 hours, using 36 cameras, 3 outside-broadcast units, a rig-car, 6 motorbikes and a helicopter.
SuperSport says it has been planning its 2022 Comrades Marathon broadcast production for four months and is using the expertise of 120 technical staff who will integrate with three outside broadcast facilities.
These OB units will be located at the start of Sunday's Comrades Marathon, at Cowies Hill and at the finish line in Durban. SuperSport will use 36 cameras to capture the success and failure that defines the race.
"Aware of the race's mighty history and traditions, SuperSport intends to
capture the essence by devoting a massive production team, allied to innovation
and technology, to its 13-hour broadcast that will begin in Pietermaritzburg at 05:00," SuperSport says.
SuperSport will have 5 multi-camera units along the route, along with a rig-car with a
specially adapted low-light camera to be used before sunrise. Elsewhere, there
will be 6 motorbikes with cameras covering the men, women and chasing
packs, and a helicopter to give a bird's eye view of the action.
SuperSport will use 6 commentators, among them nine-time Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce and former
women's champion Helen Lucre.
Two on-route presenters will interact with participants.
SuperSport will show the race on the SS Variety 4, SS Variety 3 Africa and SS
Grandstand channels on DStv in over 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa for DStv subscribers on the DStv Premium, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact packages.
MultiChoice's video streaming service, Showmax will have the 2022 Comrades Marathon live for Showmax and Showmax Pro subscribers.
Outside of sub-Saharan Africa the 2022 Comrades Marathon will be shown in full on the Comrades Marathon YouTube channel.