Saturday, July 30, 2011

BREAKING. SuperSport planning a 24 hour rugby channel for the 2011 Rugby World Cup; plus a new daily special Kia Ora magazine show.


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I cane exclusively reveal that SuperSport and MultiChoice is planning to bring subscribers a 24 hour rugby channel for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand starting on 9 September, as well as a dedicated Rugby World Cup magazine show called Kia Ora on DStv.

SuperSport is planning to bring all 48 games of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in high definition (HD) to South African viewers with English and Afrikaans commentary and Xhosa in ''selected games'' (meaning probably games in which the Springboks play). I'm not sure which channel will serve as the dedicated 24 hour rugby channel, but it will probably be SuperSport 2 (DStv 202).

SuperSport tells me it's working on a special dedicated daily magazine show called Kia Ora for the duration of the 2011 Rugby World Cup but isn't saying anything more. ''Kia Ora'' according to Wikipedia is a traditional, informal Maori greeting meaning ''stay well/be healthy'' similar to ''good day''.

In a TV promo in which SuperSport mentions that the rugby magazine show will be coming as well as hyping its 2011 Rugby World Cup coverage - which prompted my enquiries - SuperSport says it will have international in-studio guests and experts helping out for the duration of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. SuperSport also says it will have ''live cross-overs to New Zealand'' besides the matches that will be shown.