Although Canal+ Africa is busy with aggressive cost-cutting that also affects content it will continue to pay a lot of money to secure sports content and specifically football from South Africa's Premier Soccer League (PSL).
Canal+ says Canal+ executives have met with the PSL "for talks". Dr Irvin Khoza, PSL chairman is also commenting about the "productive talks".
MultiChoice's involvement with the PSL stretches back to 2007, when SuperSport took over the contract from the SABC, which could no longer afford it.
In a new supplied statement, Dr Irvin Khoza spouts nothing but prepared corporate-speak jibberish - the type of banal statements that make workers fall asleep in powerpoint presentations.
"This cascading effect sustains an ongoing national conversation that reaches across communities and generations, permeating age, gender, affiliations and geography. Over time, the PSL has evolved beyond a schedule of fixtures into a cultural infrastructure — a shared national platform through which stories are told, identities are expressed and moments are collectively experienced. Our responsibility is to curate and present this platform with consistency, credibility and care,” Dr Irvin Khoza says.
Who talks like this and why do Canal+ and SuperSport and the PSL think this "says-nothing" is something?
It continues.
Dr Irvin Khoza says "Canal+ holds a premiership in the delivery of content, and it is through this capability that the PSL is able to reach the nation at scale. Together, the PSL as curator and Canal+ as the premier delivery platform, enable a national cultural infrastructure that is both widely accessible and deeply engaging".
"The supporters are very knowledgeable about the game and the league. They follow its every move. It is their reading of form, consequence and inter-dependence between matches that creates the cascading effect across the league, as each result is interpreted in relation to the next."
This is the type of stuff you get when you're either beyond full of yourself and is surrounded by yes-people who don't tell you to life in the real world, or asked ChatGPT to string some type of presumptuous sentences together that in reality, is laughable.
Rendani Ramovha, Canal+ director for sports content in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, also gets a quotable - which is less pretentious than Irvin Khoza but grovelling in its glazing and pandering.
"The PSL is a key partner to the group, and it is important to ensure that
we maintain a good relationship with our key stakeholders. This meeting
was a major step in solidifying
our relationship with the PSL for the long term,” Ramovha is quoted as.
"We have been clear since the onset of the coming together of the Canal+ group and the MultiChoice group that our investment in local content is a
top priority. And local
football is right at the top of our most sought-after content from a
customer and viewer perspective on DStv and SuperSport."
"We hold the PSL in high regard, as it is more than just a football league –
it means so much to millions of people across the continent, who invest
their time, money and
emotions into what happens on and off the pitch."
"The meeting was to
demonstrate the respect and reverence that is held towards one of the
biggest leagues, not just in Africa, but in the world. We also look at
the PSL as the perfect platform to innovate our
broadcast offering, ever looking to improve our product and to give
viewers and customers more value.”
Dr Irvin Khoza "concluded" that apparently "some smaller crowd sizes did not truly reflect the topical nature of PSL football in everyday conversation among millions of football followers in South Africa".
"Every PSL match carries value, irrespective of the number of spectators in the stadium. Each match's true significance lies in its consequence within the league. Every supporter in attendance is matched by millions engaging from homes, workplaces, transit and social spaces across the country."
To quote Miranda Priestly: "Groundbreaking."
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