Although the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) is set to announce its new broadcast partners for its flagship schoolboy football competitions in the coming weeks, President Keith Wellington says the body is planning to increase its digital presence by streaming its various competitions online.

Since 2011, the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup and DaCosta Cup competitions have been televised on SportsMax’s cable and online platforms, but it was reported on Tuesday that they will be shut down on August 8 after a decision made by parent company Digicel.

However, Wellington told the Jamaica Observer that ISSA had already been in transition for several months.

“We were aware, first of all, of the fact we would not have them as partners because their contract came to an end last December, and even before the season ended, we had dialogue with them and they kind of spoke about the direction they were intending to go, and so we were prepared to make arrangements and alternatives,” he said.

The announcement this week left many wondering if the urban and rural area competitions would be televised for its September start date, but Wellington says the matter has been settled.

“We have already confirmed who our new partners will be,” he said. “We still have some procedural activities to complete before making it public, but we already have a partner on board.”

Wellington, though, says online streaming of ISSA-run competitions will be a priority going forward due to the evolution in how people consume media.

Since 2024, ISSA’s official YouTube channel has livestreamed football, netball, basketball, table tennis, and volleyball. Despite the multimillion-dollar costs of streaming, Wellington says it’s a worthwhile venture.

“When we look at what’s been happening, the traditional media is losing a lot of its audience because of what’s happening with social media and access to information, activities and events via social media,” he said. “So we’re putting in the necessary arrangements to ensure that there’s increased access to our competitions via our various channels — YouTube and Instagram in particular.

“I think this year there was a notable increase for us in terms of how we shared access to our competitions, especially those junior competitions or sporting competitions that aren’t necessarily covered by traditional media, so we did have significant increase in that area and that’s one of the things that we’re proud of. We invested quite a few million dollars in ensuring these competitions were exposed via social media, live as well, and we’re planning to ensure that’s something that we enhance on and work on — not just for those competitions, but also the big ones.”