Gary Rathbone

Founder and Director, Sportscape Media

Gary Rathbone is the founder and Director of Sportscape Media, engaging in the business of sports media, for broadcasting, sponsorship and event activation. The business also aims to find new and relevant sports programming for African broadcasters and advertisers as well as help all parties explore ways to engage with the newly evolving media environment, working with clients in South Africa, Africa and in Europe.

A career that started as a sports journalist and TV producer evolved into the business of sports broadcasting when he was appointed Head of Africa for SuperSport (2008-12). Subsequent roles included Head of Sport at Zuku in Kenya (2013-14), Director of Sport at StarTimes (2014-16) and Senior Advisor for Sport and Africa for the Discovery Network (2016-17). While in London he also created and produced the first ever daily independent pan-African sports news show, Sports News Africa, in 2014.

After a decade working abroad, he returned to South Africa in 2018 and was appointed as Head of Sport for the SABC in 2020, during which time he built a significant inventory of great international and local content and launched the SABC’s first ever stand-alone sports channel, SABC Sport, in 2021. As part of this new digital-focused strategy, he also delivered another first with the launch of SABCSport.com as the broadcasters own digital sports hub, in 2022.

He resigned at the end of 2022 to focus on his Sportscape Media consulting project. For more information go to the Sportscape Media website: www.sportscapemedia.com