{"id":601249,"date":"2025-07-07T07:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=601249"},"modified":"2025-07-07T10:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T08:05:21","slug":"dstvs-secret-youtube-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/601249-dstvs-secret-youtube-giant.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv’s secret YouTube giant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MultiChoice has released its annual integrated report<\/a> for the 2024\/25 financial year, reporting that the SuperSport YouTube channel has grown to 4.82 million subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its launch in 2013, the YouTube channel has accumulated 1.1 billion views, and SuperSport says it has undergone several changes in the 12 years since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SuperSport’s digital and social media department made a significant imprint during the financial year,” MultiChoice said in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The launch of various YouTube-first digital content offerings such as SuperSport Unplugged and digital build-up has grown SuperSport’s following and engagement across various platforms.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The channel has gained 756,000 subscribers over the past two years and posted 16.1 million hours of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice told MyBroadband that the channel recently pivoted from posting match footage to posting more engaging content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With at least 2.7 million monthly active users on the platform, SuperSport has leaned into the trends to carve out a lane for both avid and non-avid sports fans,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The platform has given SuperSport the opportunity to talk to an audience that traditionally sits outside of its universe while still maintaining a captive sports-loving audience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice also reported that SuperSport Unplugged, the channel’s dedicated Vodcast, drew nearly one million YouTube views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SuperSport Unplugged has been the podcast vehicle on the platform, while short features and 15-20 minute fan-focused pieces have replaced match highlights,” it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster said SuperSport Unplugged has accumulated 18 million views across Meta’s platforms, X, TikTok, and YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SuperSport Unplugged also generated 318.4 million total impressions across these platforms,” it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company says YouTube Shorts have allowed SuperSport to share short match moments with audiences that still want hard sports content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of its short-form videos were among the channel’s top 10 in 2024, and in 2025, seven of the channel’s top 10 videos were YouTube Shorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Shorts alone have brought in 35,000 subscribers with 16.5 million views in the past year,” MultiChoice said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster said the live-streaming of pre-match shows has significantly driven the channel’s growth. It started live-streaming the shows during the Betway SA20 competition and the Soweto Derbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a newer lane of content, but at least 1.3 million views have been garnered from live streams in the last year,” MultiChoice said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the pre-match show ahead of the Springbok match against the Barbarians on Saturday, 28 June 2025, attracted 200 thousand viewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the channel’s audience, MultiChoice said 54% of viewers are aged between 18 and 44 years old, and it has a strong presence in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SuperSport sees the channel as complementary to its primary services and a shopfront for potential customers who may be considering a DStv or Showmax subscription,” the broadcaster stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 47,000 hours of live sports in a year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice-owned SuperSport aired more than 47,000 hours of live sports<\/a> coverage between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, representing a 7% increase over the previous financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sports broadcaster attributed the increase to three senior men’s and one women’s major ICC cricket tournaments, the Summer Olympics, the men’s Euro 2024 football tournament, and 13 Springbok tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SuperSport previously said its coverage of the Olympic Games in Paris was unmatched, covering 1,200 live events over 2,900 live broadcast hours across 19 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster said it maintained strong football viewership by making La Liga available on more affordable packages and by offering additional UEFA Champions League games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SuperSport also said the Soweto Derby in February 2025 was the most-watched derby during the 2024\/25 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also observed significant growth in rugby viewership during the reporting period, with a 23% and 29% viewership increase for the United Rugby Championship and Currie Cup tournaments, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SuperSport owns 30% of the Betway20 T20 cricket tournament, which it hailed as a major success, considering local viewership grew by 47% year over year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster aired 799 hours of the competition across seven dedicated channels, and Nielsen Sports SA said more than 1.3 million South African viewers tuned in throughout the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding combat sports, South African UFC champion Dricus du Plessis’s second world title fight against Sean Strickland broke the SuperSport viewership record for an MMA event.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MultiChoice’s SuperSport YouTube channel has accumulated more than 1.1 billion views since 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":601194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85,73842,475,3516,100442,59100,41650,2150],"class_list":["post-601249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv","tag-meta-platforms","tag-multichoice","tag-supersport","tag-supersport-unplugged","tag-tiktok","tag-x","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601460,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601249\/revisions\/601460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}