SuperSport siege incoming
While South African broadcasters are at each other’s throats over the right to show high-profile sporting events, international video streaming services with much deeper pockets are waiting in the wings to join the battle.
That is the warning from veteran South African television journalist Thinus Ferreira, speaking on the ongoing feud between MultiChoice, eMedia, and the SABC about the sublicensing of sports rights.
Ferreira said while these broadcasters are “squabbling on the local playground”, they should really be concerned about how global streamers could supersede them in the sports rights fight.
“Industry types concerned that sports of national importance should be seen free-to-air by all South Africans are seemingly oblivious to the fact that even pay-TV like SuperSport is on the verge of getting eclipsed by an even bigger shark in the sport rights waters,” Ferreira said.
“Wait until Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and their ilk swoop in to snap up the rights to South African and African sport.”
“There will no longer be a question about whether it can be seen on free-to-air TV, people will have to pay for a streaming subscription.”
Ferreira argues that South Africa’s sports rights landscape will change in the same way that those in Europe, the UK, the US, and other developed countries are shifting towards streaming services.
Broadcasters and the national government — which has been wrestling with MultiChoice over its extensive sports rights acquisitions — are not prepared for this switch.
“South Africa and all the current in-fighting players seem wholly unprepared, with all their eyes off the ball and ignorant of the real looming threat,” he said.
“Whether South African rugby, soccer, or whatever sport is currently seen on local broadcasting services — the rights are still owned by still South African companies — for now.”
Multiple live sports streaming deals in less than a year
Ferreira listed several examples of major video streaming services moving into live sports content.
Amazon Prime Video in particular seems to be very aggressive in its live sports play, securing the following deals in just the past year:
- 11-year global exclusive streaming rights to 66 annual regular season National Basketball Association (NBA) games and coverage, including the NBA Playoffs, Conference Finals, and Emirates NBA Cup.
- 2-year exclusive streaming rights in Canada for the National Hockey League (NHL) for all regular season games from 2024/2025 to 2025/2026.
- 4-year exclusive streaming rights to International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments in Australia including the men’s and women’s Cricket World Cups, World Test Championship, and Champions Trophy.
- Exclusive streaming rights for the 2024 season of T20 Major League Cricket in Australia and New Zealand.
Ferreira said in the case of Amazon securing the ICC cricket streaming rights in Australia, the government had a knee-jerk reaction.
He said the Australian government intends to “update” non-existent regulations to limit streaming services’ acquisition of these rights.
Ferreira expects the reaction will be much the same if something similar occurred in South Africa.
Fortunately for MultiChoice — and those who want its pie — Amazon is likely not currently interested in pursuing the rights to stream South African sports or secure the rights to our national team games.
The company has significantly downsized its Prime Video operations in Africa and the Middle East after previously announcing big Amazon Originals ambitions in the region.
However, it could still acquire rights to international sports and tournaments popular in South Africa.
In addition, Prime Video is not the only streamer making significant inroads into live sports streaming.
Disney previously acquired the rights to stream the Indian Premier League (IPL) — one of the world’s most-watched sporting events — after acquiring Indian streaming services Hotstar and Star TV in 2019.
Although the company lost the rights to Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 in 2022, it recently agreed to form a joint venture that is likely to see it again offer the IPL. The tournament’s absence caused a big loss in Disney+ subscribers in India.
Ferreira also pointed out that Netflix bosses have publicly stated that the company will aggressively pursue adding more live sports and live events to its offering.
The streaming giant secured its first deals to stream live sports entertainment events this year, starting with exclusive streaming rights to WWE Raw in the US, Canada, UK, and Latin America from 2025.
More recently, it announced an agreement to stream two NFL matches on Christmas Day.
The streaming service has also hosted its own one-off live sports events — the Netflix Cup and Netflix Slam.
Big ad revenue up for grabs
The move into live sports streaming is a natural next step for video streaming services, many of which have been facing subscription slowdowns in recent years and are seeking new avenues for revenue growth.
Netflix and Disney+ are among several streaming services that have already launched cheaper ad-supported plans in other markets to make their plans more accessible while diversifying their income sources.
The typical character of live sports allows for significant advertising time and sponsorship placement, while many sports can draw millions upon millions of viewers to see those commercials and sponsors.
Many people would also likely be willing to pay significant amounts for “passes” providing access to certain tournaments or sports on streaming services for a limited period.
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