by Thinus Ferreira
The behind-the-hand sniggering among South African journalists are ongoing over the bizarre PR approach of MultiChoice's Showmax with American outlets, this time over Showmax getting The Hollywood Reporter's Georg Szalai to republish what is a Showmax press release for its upcoming Spinners drama series as an "exclusive" together with a Spinners trailer branded an "exclusive trailer".
The hilarity? The Showmax press release is a general press release sent to media, and the trailer ... well, how is any trailer from any TV series ever "exclusive"?
The weeks before The Hollywood Reporter, MultiChoice's streaming service played with Deadline again who then had the "exclusive" trailer for Showmax's upcoming Outlaws drama series.
Only, again, the information and trailer were anything but "exclusive" and are general production information - and a trailer! - that can and will never be something exclusive!
It's unclear what Showmax's thinking is its the odd PR approach but possibly American outlets don't or won't run press releases unless it's sold as something "exclusive"?
Part of the broader ongoing issue as well is that MultiChoice and Showmax continue to do lip service saying they support the local biz ... however, that just doesn't really extend to the local news media.
Constantly running to the likes of The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and others because they are American, divvying up so-called fake "exclusives" hoping someone bites, after then doing an email blast with the same press release that then goes to local outlets in South Africa or Kenya or wherever, seems demeaning, destructive and counter-productive to building actual media relationships.
Spinners, a co-production with Canal+ of 8 episodes starring Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas with director Jaco Bouwer, will release the first episode on Showmax on 8 November.
