“Alex’s involvement in media began when he was just 10 years old when, with a few friends, he started an online internet radio station which gave him his first taste of media. The bug bit and in 2015 he became a founding member of RX Radio, the local and international award-winning community radio station at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Alex became the youngest-ever winner of a South African Radio Award in 2020. Radio is the medium he is most passionate about. In May this year, he joined Kfm94.5 as a Junior Producer. Academics not sport, was more his focus. In 2021 along with two friends he entered the Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Business Pitch Challenge with an idea for a production company focussed on telling stories of young people. They won the challenge and in 2022 landed their first client, SuperSport Schools. Since March 2021, Alex and a team of 19-year-olds have been the youngest producers of a TV show in South Africa. They produce the SuperSport Schools’ Podcast which airs weekly on DStv channel 216 and tells the stories of our future South African sporting stars. Alex is also a Western Province Rugby Referee.
The SuperSport Schools DStv channel (216) is the only one of its kind in the world. Today there are 750 000 people watching schools’ rugby. In 2021 the programme was expanded to cover other sports. 35 different sports are screened covering 800 odd schools, with 1000 games on TV, using the app/website – for free. There is a cost to watching this channel on DSTV Premium. Alex shared that the fastest growing sport at the moment was Netball.
How are the matches filmed? Using AI cameras. For big matches, these cameras are manned by crew. For smaller matches there is no audio. Four cameras follow the ball capturing 80% of the game which can be moved on the field. The filming is funded by Advertising.
Alex was warmly thanked by Jan Buurman for a most interesting talk.
