Satellite television service MultiChoice has created a new technology division to align its delivery across the group, which has necessitated the appointment of a chief technology officer, as well as a new MD of its South African operations.

The new division will house the Broadcast Technology Division, Enterprise Business Systems, Group digital, DStv Streaming technology and Project Management Office under one division, led by Nyiko Shiburi as the chief technology officer.

“We are repositioning our technology area to lead our next growth phase and to deliver on our vision of becoming the technology platform of choice for African households. We have consolidated everything related to technology, engineering, and technical divisions into a technology hub,” says MultiChoice group CEO Calvo Mawela.

Shiburi will lead all the technology divisions across the MultiChoice group in his new role, after having led MultiChoice South Africa for the past three years, prior to his role as the regional director for MultiChoice Southern Region.

“Shiburi has extensive leadership experience in the technology space, having grown within the MultiChoice ranks from senior manager for broadcast engineering and group GM for the broadcast technology division. His technology background and experience place him in good stead to lead this new division and deliver the best technology to achieve our goals,” notes Mawela.

Other changes to the management team include the current SuperSport CEO Marc Jury taking over as CEO for MultiChoice South Africa.

In turn, Jury has a record of excellence in execution at SuperSport. He also has extensive experience in leadership roles across the sports and entertainment sectors in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Prior to leading SuperSport as CEO, he was responsible for the commercial aspects of SuperSport, which included managing sports-related programming across the SuperSport channels and marketing the content of these channels.

Rendani Ramovha will take over as CEO-designate for SuperSport, effective April 1.

He is currently head of marketing and commercial, responsible for driving the commercial growth and building partnership opportunities for SuperSport across the African continent.

“Ramovha has driven some of the most exciting innovations within SuperSport, including SuperSport Schools, SuperPicks (a BetKing and SuperSport partnership) and the SA20 Cricket League. With all these innovations he has directly driven the vision of the group whilst leveraging the core strengths of the SuperSport brand,” notes Mawela.

He will in this transition period report directly to Teix Texeira, who will be interim CEO of SuperSport for 12 months.

Texeira has been chief content officer for SuperSport over the past year, having recently rejoined SuperSport from Sky in New Zealand, where he occupied various leadership roles including CEO of Sky Sports. Within SuperSport he has previously held several roles, including head of productions and head of channels.

“We are excited about this new leadership team and believe they will play a key role in our journey to become a technology platform of choice,” says Mawela.