MultiChoice's Showmax kept Allan Sperling's exit as its head of content secret - who is now surfacing as Warner Bros Discovery's Nordics programming boss

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice's Showmax streamer, struggling with an embarrassing and constant exit of top execs over the last few years, has also kept the exit of Allan Sperling, its executive head of content, a secret - with Sperling now surfacing after 7 months as Warner Bros. Discovery's group vice president of programming, networks and streaming for the Nordics.

Allan Sperling who had oversight of Showmax content production until the end of April, will now oversee programming and operations for Warner Bros Discovery's channel portfolio in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

He will also lead the development of local Nordic productions for WBD's video streaming service Max.

Showmax that continues to struggle with a highly embarrassing revolving door of top executives didn't announce Allan Sperling's exit to South Africa's film and TV industry when he left at the end of April 2024. 

In August, TVwithThinus reported that M-Net and kykNET's Nicola van Niekerk was upped as Showmax acting content boss while continuing in her role as M-Net's head of premium content and co-productions.

Even in August Showmax didn't want to say that Nicola van Niekerk taking on acting content boss duties for Showmax was due to Allan Sperling exit.

MultiChoice continues to struggle with constant instability on Showmax top executive level which is now once again losing its CEO as well just months after the relaunch of the so-called ""Showmax 2.0" with Comcast's NBCUniversal.

MultiChoice South Africa CEO and Showmax CEO Marc Jury has resigned and will exit his Showmax CEO role in four months' time by the end of March 2025.

Marc Jury was forced to take over as interim Showmax CEO besides his MultiChoice SA CEO responsibilities just a year and two months ago after the abrupt departure of Yolisa Phahle as Showmax CEO in September 2023.

Just a month later in October 2023 Barry Dubovsky was out as Showmax chief operating officer (COO), with Joe Heshu quickly moved into the role as a stop-gap measure.

In August 2022 MultiChoice lost Candice Fangueiro as Showmax content boss who decided to jump to Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video in August 2022 to head up the creation and development of local content there although that initiative crashed and burned after less than two years.

MultiChoice and SHowmax also kept the exit of John Kotsaftis a secret to the industry and the media when the founder and first Showmax CEO left at the end of 2017. 

Over all of the Showmax executive exits hangs the aggressive buyout attempt by Vivendi SE's Canal+ in France that wants to take over MultiChoice.

The erratic Showmax turnstile leadership at this point must definitely not just be a massive point of concern for MultiChoice and partner Comcast but also for Canal+ which will very likely bring and make for yet another round of executive changes within Showmax if its buyout is approved in 2025. 

Showmax adds Boetie Boer as 5-episode true-crime doc series from October about Port Elizabeth's notorious 1990s serial killer.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax continues to load up on true-crime documentary South African content and commissioned Boetie Boer: Inside the Mind of a Monster about a Gqeberha serial killer. 

The 5-episode documentary series is from Stage 5 Films and Fifth Floor Films, follows after true-crime documentaries like Devilsdorp and Rosemary's Hitlist.

Showmax once again gave the general show announcement press release about the series to the American outlet Deadline as an "exclusive" press release, before it will send the same general information to "announce" it to South African media in the coming week.

Boetie Boer: Inside the Mind of a Monster which will debut on 18 October, tells the story of the South African serial killer Stewart Wilken who murdered young children and prostitutes in the Port Elizabeth area during the 1990s and who was arrested in 1997.

Allan Sperling, Showmax head of content, says "Even if you are over 18 and a fan of true-crime documentaries, we strongly advise viewer discretion. This is not for sensitive viewers, especially hearing the description of the crimes in the killer's own words".

Canal+ and Showmax behind the wheel for 8-episode Cape Town co-production car racing drama series Spinners.

by Thinus Ferreira

Canal+ and MultiChoice have teamed to film yet another co-production in South Africa, this time an action drama series called Spinners going inside the dangerous world of car spinning in Cape Town with the 8-episode series which will be on MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax.

In March, speaking as a panellist at kykNET's 10th Silwerskermfees film festival in Camps Bay, Allan Sperling, MultiChoice Group's executive head of physical production, hinted that "an Afrikaans co-production has been signed and we're going into production within the next few months".

"It is possible to do Afrikaans international co-productions. We're in partnership with Canal+ who are taking the French rights and the rest of the world will be up for sales and this is where we're looking to recoup and the producer also gets proceeds from that. So it is also possible for Afrikaans shows to become co-productions," he said a few months ago.

Production on Spinners, which is the show that Allan Sperling referenced, is produced by Empreinte Digitale and Natives at Large with Jaco Bouwer as director and Benjamin Hoffman as co-creator and showrunner.

Filming on Spinners started in the Mother City this week, with the story revolving around Ethan, a 17-year old driver working for a local gang who discovers car spinning in which he excels and where he puts his driving skills to use.

Under the shadow of a looming gang war and with his gang being run by gangster Damien with an iron fist, Ethan tries to support his younger brother while he is increasingly disgusted with his own life, and tries to use car spinning as his exit from gang life.

The cast of Spinners include Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas from the Cape Town based Afrikaans telenovela Arendsvlei on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145), as well as Brendon Daniels and Dillon Windvogel, with the series which will be in English, Afrikaans and Kaaps Afrikaans.

The hip hop star DJ Ready D is the Spinners music supervisor and responsible for composing the show's soundtrack.

Meanwhile post-production is still continuing on Blood Psalms from Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar's Yellowbone Entertainment, with the African fantasy drama series which is another MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production earmarked for Showmax.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: With South Africa's global co-productions still in infancy, MultiChoice to announce Afrikaans series with Canal+.

2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: With South Africa's global co-productions still in infancy, MultiChoice to announce Afrikaans series with Canal+.

by Thinus Ferreira 

While South Africa's film and TV co-productions market is still in its infancy, the future for series shot in the country with international partners attached looks promising, with the MultiChoice Group that is set to announce soon that it will be doing a new Afrikaans TV series as a global co-production with France's Canal+.

Nomsa Philiso, the MultiChoice Group's new executive head of programming, who was one of the panellist at 2022's 10th Silwerskermfees in a panel discussion on fostering co-productions, told attendees that while South Africa's film and TV co-productions with other countries are still in its infancy, there is a lot of scope to expand on new partnerships and in new parts of the world.

She said that the idea is to make sure that South Africans go out there and tell their stories as good as anybody else on the world stage.

In terms of what MultiChoice and M-Net are looking for in terms of international co-productions, she says "people tend to bring what they think we like - because it worked last year - but we want to evolve. We don't have all the ideas as the broadcaster - the ideas live in the minds of the people who supply us with content."

"It is them who must take us to the next level in terms of what is out there, what stories are we not telling." 

She said "our stories haven't been told in the manner that we want and we see now that the opportunities exist to leverage on that in a much stronger way."

Kaye Ann Williams, M-Net's head of local content and independent films, said the blue ribbon pay-TV broadcaster is "from a genre perspective definitely looking for crime content but don't get stuck in that - look at sub-genres that could be married to that like comedy, like psychological thrillers, like action".

"The other opportunity for pitching is definitely in the factual space. We know that our premium audience loves documentaries."

"We know that they view them elsewhere and they enjoy it and consume it on our platform as well, so there's definitely an opportunity to go into the high-end factual documentary space, but again it must be very compelling and it must sell."

Allan Sperling, the MultiChoice Group's executive head of physical production, said "an Afrikaans co-production that has been signed and we're going into production within the next few months".

"It is also possible to do Afrikaans international co-productions. We're in partnership with Canal+ who are taking the French rights and the rest of the world will be up for sales and this is where we're looking to recoup and the producer also gets proceeds from that. So it is also possible for Afrikaans shows to become co-productions," he said.

As passionate as possible

Panellist and producer Layla Swart, co-owner of Yellowbone Entertainment producing the fantasy drama series Blood Psalms for MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax as a co-production with Canal+, said packaging a show for co-production is extremely important.

"Because we're existing in an industry that is in its infancy, we're also trying to figure out what our audiences want, we're trying to figure out what our partners want from us as South African content creators, and often there's an unknown. Everything relies very heavily on how you present yourself and your product."

"It's exhausting and I know it's very difficult at the moment to be a producer. It's a privilege to be able to sit here and to say I've done a co-production," she said.

"I'm acutely aware of how difficult it is to put something together and how difficult also is with co-productions because they take long - bringing partners on, and then aligning a vision, and also aligning finance and business models are not a quick strategy."

"It definitely pays off at the end because your project has scope but it's not an easy process. We can only be as passionate as possible about what we're making, finding the right people to make it, and then package it as well as we can."

With Yellowbone Entertainment which has been struggling with getting the department of trade and industry to pay the promised film rebates for Blood Psalms, Layla Swart said "every producer will say they've been having struggles with the South African government specifically with film rebates and tax incentives".

"Why that is so crucial is because producers are emerging producers."

"Many of us don't have a lot of capital and resources behind us. What the government instruments are there for, is for you as a producer to be able to bring something to the partnership, for you to be able to entice international people to want to work with you, and want to shoot here and want to use our crews and actors and our stories."

"That is the biggest struggle. It's killing our industry to be honest and we're heavily reliant on our broadcasters to such an extent that we feel we can't mobilise anything on our own and I think with the broadcasters being inundated, there's only so much broadcasters can greenlit."

"Our biggest challenge is how do we empower producers and production companies through incentives, that are supposed to be there, to sustain the industry."

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