Barry Dubovsky out at Showmax as MultiChoice's streamer loses COO just after CEO exit and before its Comcast's NBCUniversal relaunch: 'The optics look awful'.

by Thinus Ferreira

Barry Dubovsky is out as Showmax chief operating officer (COO) shortly after the abrupt exit of Yolisa Phahle as Showmax CEO a month ago, with Dubovsky's gap now being plugged by Joe Heshu who is now moved to Showmax after he was recently moved to the position of Southern Africa regional director at MultiChoice.

Insiders tell TVwithThinus "the optics look awful" for a video streaming service which is supposed to be relaunched within months with the help of Comcast's NBCUniversal and Britain's Sky, to try and more effectively compete with Netflix on the African continent.

Neither MultiChoice nor Showmax shared the latest management upheaval and changes with the media - similar to the CEO position exit of Yolisa Phahle. Comment will be added here if received.

The Australian Barry Dubovsky was at MultiChoice for 5 years after joining in 2018 - first as group exec of digital for MultiChoice Africa and later moved to the Showmax COO role.

In an internal email, similar to the one issued belatedly to MultiChoice staffers when they were informed that Yolisa Phahle is no longer Showmax CEO, MultiChoice said that Barry Dubovsky played "an integral role in closing the Peacock Platform agreement as part of the Comcast deal".

Similar to Yolisa Phahle who will be providing an "advisory" role to MultiChoice South Africa CEO and acting Showmax CEO Marc Jury until the end of February 2024, Barry Dubovsky will also play an "advisory role" for Showmax until the end of February 2024.

Joe Heshu is now the plug-and-play Showmax COO. 

In November 2021 Joe Heshu was quietly moved from his corporate affairs role in Johannesburg to Lusaka in Zambia to replace Kobus Bezuidenhout as Southern Africa regional director at MultiChoice and who only lasted a few month before also exiting.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's Showmax CEO Yolisa Phahle resigns - plus other executive changes.

SHOCKING SMACKDOWN. WWE wrestling slamdunked away from SuperSport linear on DStv and to MultiChoice's Showmax streamer as its new home in multi-year contract extension.

by Thinus Ferreira

With tepid viewership on SuperSport in South Africa for WWE and a massive drop in buzz since the American wrestling entertainment franchise jumped a few years ago from eMedia's e.tv to pay-TV, MultiChoice and SuperSport are shunting WWE away from its linear channels on DStv to its streaming service Showmax. 

SuperSport took over WWE from e.tv in September 2017 but over the past five years buzz and ratings for WWE on DStv were nowhere near the viewership it once had on the free-to-air channel.

In a new multi-year contract extension WWE is now pushed off SuperSport where a linear wrestling TV channel was created specifically for it, to Showmax which has an even smaller potential audience and viewership as a streaming service.

The result is that even fewer viewers will be watching WWE wrestling in South Africa and Africa, down from the number of people who watched as DStv subscribers on SuperSport, and down from the viewers who watched when WWE was on e.tv.

SuperSport will continue to broadcast live weekly episodes of shows such as Raw, SmackDown and NXT on a linear SuperSport channel, as well as WWE's premium live events.

MultiChoice and SuperSport are not specifying whether the WWE TV channel on channel 128 on DStv is getting terminated and removed but it wouldn't be surprising if the bulk of WWE content will now sit on Showmax.

The WWE's new deal with SuperSport to house WWE content on MultiChoice's Showmax is similar to what the WWE Network has done in the United States, where it has moved its content in a licensing agreement to NBCUniversal's Peacock video streaming service. 

WWE has done the same in Australia where its wrestling is now on Foxtel's Binge streaming service, and in Indonesia and the Philippines with Disney+ Hotstar.

In a statement Matt Drew, WWE senior vice president of international, says "Showmax Pro is the market leader and a perfect home for WWE content. By delivering our premium live events including WrestleMania, we believe this partnership will expand our audience and deliver even more to WWE fans throughout the region".

Barry Dubovsky, MultiChoice Connected Video chief operating officer, says in the statement "Adding WWE to the Showmax platform is an exciting development that we know our entertainment and sport-loving African subscribers are going to enjoy, making WWE even more accessible and affordable".

Hilariously, Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Connected Video chief executive officer, is attributed the exact same drop-in quote in the WWE and MultiChoice press release issued to American media, saying "Adding WWE to the Showmax platform is an exciting development that we know our entertainment and sport-loving African subscribers are going to enjoy, making WWE even more accessible and affordable".

MultiChoice's Showmax adds a 50MB 'Max Data Saving' mode for video streaming.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice's video streaming service has added what it calls a 50MB "Max Data Saving" mode - something it says will only use 50 megabytes (MB) per hour.

"This is currently available within the iOS mobile version of the Showmax app and will be rolled out to Android app users soon," Showmax says.

Until now Showmax content consumed roughly around 300MB per hour, with up to 1.4GB for the highest possible video quality stream. its data saving mode has roughly been using 100MB.

"Showmax is designed for Africa: a mobile-first continent where the cost of data remains a barrier to streaming," says Barry Dubovsky, MultiChoice connected video chief operating officer (COO).

"Showmax was the first streaming service in Africa to make mobile downloads possible for offline viewing and the first to launch a mobile-only plan, so we want to keep tailor-making Showmax for African realities."

MultiChoice Showcase 2021: Why month-old pre-recorded interviews from MultiChoice executives sitting in Dubai touting DStv's 'home-grown local content' in Africa?

by Thinus Ferreira

On Thursday afternoon - following an unexplained late start and DStv channel 196 that failed to be unblocked for media to watch the event that way - MultiChoice made the press sit through its virtual MultiChoice Showcase 2021 event that was frontloaded with stale, month-old, pre-recorded interviews with MultiChoice executives sitting in Dubai but ironically touting DStv's "home-grown local content" in Africa.

MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela; MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment and connected video, Yolisa Phahle, and Showmax's chief operating officer Barry Dubovsky (who has never even been introduced to the press since his appointment in August) were all seen in pre-recorded interviews.

Their interviews with Pabi Moloi, asking softball questions and with the answers not contributing anything new or containing any news, were done over a month ago in Dubai, with the executives all effusively talking about how important African video content is as they rather work from Dubai.

It's not clear why MultiChoice decided to use Pabi Moloi who is the face of rival brand eMedia and who is the presenter of e.tv's The Morning Show. 

It's reminiscent of when MultiChice and M-Net (DStv 101) in 2011 decided to use The Parlotones and their exact same song "It's Magic" for its new on-air campaign at the same time as the same song was already being used by SABC3 for months.

Why not use a Carte Blanche presenter, or Qiniso Van Damme who was The Bachelorette SA or someone already within the M-Net or MultiChoice video sphere that DStv subscribers have watched and trust?

MultiChoice is well aware that the media (that it presumably wants to engage with its MultiChoice Showcase) is looking for information, new information and news. 

It's not clear what MultiChoice specifically instructed executives like Calvo Mawela, Yolisa Phahle and Barry Dubovsky to say about DStv and Showmax and to work into their answers that would be new news, since everything that they did say in their month-old, pre-recorded interviews were a waste of the media's time.

Who at MultiChoice decided that Pabi Moloi must do a dull interview with an Irdeto executive about cyber security? 

It's is not functional, instructive, useful or appropriate for a so-called MultiChoice Showcase. Something like this belongs in a MultiChoice orientation video for new staff members - not as padded filler in a media event.

Conversation segments during the MultiChoice Showcase 2021 with SuperSport CEO Marc Jury, MultiChoice South Africa CEO Nyiko Shiburi, and with Fhulufhelo Badugela as MultiChoice Africa CEO were already better because these were not pre-recorded and done in South Africa, although they mostly also lacked newsworthy substance.

It was cringe-inducing having to watch Yolisa Phahle saying she can't remember what she can say and what information is under embargo. 

When you're producing, talking to, or disseminating any information to the media, the corporate communications team and executives roped in need to be 100% clear about what the information and the messages are - as well as come across as eager to share, not coy and bland with flavour-of-the-moment catchphrases.

MultiChoice's pre-recorded and old "interviews" with its executives feel inauthentic, dated, vapid, and lacked substance and quotables.

Whoever came up with this bizarre idea to reheat old stuff lacking substance has no idea how the news media covering the TV and film industry operate and what their needs are.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: 18 must-know info-blasts from this year's media event.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: SuperSport to shine in 2022 with a vast locked-in offering of local and international sports events.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: 'Fuck, fuck fuck, fuck' says SuperSport in profanity-laced Springbok documentary sizzle reel for new Two Sides rugby and Pulse of a Nation football local documentaries coming to DStv in 2022.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: MultiChoice and M-Net aggressively ramp up Lusophone production targeting DStv subscribers with new channels and content in Portuguese in Mozambique and Angola.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: PICTORIAL. A set of new Blood Psalms stills released as MultiChoice's delayed Showmax Original fantasy series from Yellowbone Entertainment waits to be paid its film rebate.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice Showcase 2021: M-Net renews Survivor South Africa for an all-stars 9th season to be broadcast in July 2022.