[UPDATE - CHANGING.] YouTube adds pre-recorded and live streaming sports content for South Africa.

UPDATE -Wednesday 3 July 13:20: YouTube has reached out to say that the article and information reported below, as from a press release issued yesterday, isn't all correct. When there is updated, correct information, a new article will be added here as a (2), and above what is now marked (1) below, and TVwithThinus will also do a separate, new report on this specific news:


(1) YouTube is adding sports content that it will be streaming for South African users, similar to Showmax's recent announcement in mid-June of adding sports content from SuperSport as a live streaming option.

YouTube in South Africa on Tuesday announced that people will now be able to watch basketball, rugby, cricket and football events on YouTube as part of video-on-demand (VOD) viewing, as well as highlights packages including the recent NBA Finals, UEFA Champions League, ABSA Premiership, Serie A, La Liga, Women’s World Cup, UFC and AFCON. 

YouTube will also make live sporting events available in future for South African viewers.

YouTube said that sports consumption on YouTube in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is growing fast and that in 2018 YouTube saw a 70% increase in views of sports and fitness related content, totalling more than 61 billion views.

" In Africa, sports content on YouTube is both broad and deep with YouTube delivering evergreen sporting highlights alongside new and emerging sports experiences like home fitness, and 79% of viewers saying that YouTube has sport and fitness content they can’t find anywhere else," the company said in a press release.

"It's an amazing summer of sport around the world and in Africa," says Dayo Olopade, the YouTube content partnerships lead.

"We know audiences are excited about sports content on YouTube and we are pleased to be able to bring fans more of the sports they love, in collaboration with our global and local partners."

MultiChoice's Connected Video division that runs its subscription VOD service, Showmax, started testing both pre-recorded and live sport content on its streaming service.

MultiChoice looking at the possibility of offering a Sport bouquet on DStv and if offering big sport events as pay-per-view is economically viable.

MultiChoice is looking at and researching the possibility of offering a Sports specific DStv bouquet to DStv subscribers but is cautioning that it won't be happening soon, and is also researching the economic viability of offering big sport events as a pay-per-view (PPV) option in Africa.

Tim Jacobs, CEO of MultiChoice Africa, said at the MultiChoice Content Showcase in Mauritius that MultiChoice that offering a sports specific bouquet on DStv is part of MultiChoice's product development.

"We listen to consumers, but it's a different model to our current one." Tim Jacobs said MultiChoice is "constantly evaluating the viability, so it's something we're considering, but it's not imminent".

David Booth, chief content officer for MultiChoice Africa, also commenting on the possibility of a sports specific DStv bouquet on Wednesday at the Main Beach Marquee where MultiChoice held a MultiChoice Africa Media Roundtable press conference, said that MultiChoice is always looking at trends.

"We're not in a position at this time to go that far [introduce a sports specific package]. There's always a chance to improve our content and quality and over the next two years, we'll see how it goes," said David Booth.

"Pay-Per-View sounds attractive, but it's actually a red herring," said Tim Jacobs.

"An easy example is the Mayweather/Pacquiao boxing match earlier this year. It sold on Pay-Per-View across the world – in the USA at $99 for 3 to 4 hours of viewing.

"Across the continent, subscribers pay less than that for DStv Premium for a whole month of viewing across all our channels – and in this instance, that included that fight, which was broadcast on SuperSport. That's the benefit of scale for us."

"If you segment sports, for example the English Premier League (EPL), the reality is that the cost of that is much higher than everyone thinks because you need to divide up those expensive rights between a much smaller viewing population, so the cost goes up exponentially."

"That doesn't mean we're not looking at Pay-Per-View as an option – we need to be flexible and we get a lot of requests for it."

"We’re watching consumer demand and looking at whether it's economically viable. It's not on the cards right now, though, but we do have a research team trying to work that out," said Tim Jacobs.

MultiChoice's 5 day DStv Content Showcase in Mauritius started on Tuesday with the satellite pay-TV service doing a programming and content upfront where several TV channels - from Sony Television and BBC Worldwide to SuperSport, M-Net, Viacom's BET, MTV Base, A+E Networks UK's History, Lifetime and others - are presenting their latest and upcoming programming and content over the coming months.

MultiChoice excluded South Africa's press and TV critics from attending the MultiChoice Content Showcase that media from other Africa countries are attending, and MultiChoice didn't inform South African journalists covering the TV industry beforehand that the event would be taking place.

Another Sunday sh*tstory - totally untrue - that your sport will disappear from TV if South Africa bans liquor ads on television.

For the second Sunday in a row, in the same red-top Sunday newspaper, a sad, sorry, sensationalist sh*tstory about the TV industry in South Africa which is cringe worthy in its inaccurate, 100% untrue, unresearched, and devoid of actual facts, trash tale.

Last Sunday the same newspaper had a bad (as in eye-poppingly shocking, uncritical, clueless and devoid of actual experts or containing nothing but spokespeople spin) story on MultiChoice not allowing the recording of content shown through DStv on other devices besides PVRs.

It was lame, pathetic journalism and an injustice to what should be an informed article to give real facts and insight.

This Sunday there is more sh*t coverage of yet another TV biz topic, with a total sensationalist sh*t stirrer which is devoid of truth and filled with breathless "reporting".

Now the newspaper has crap masquerading as news claiming that hours of cricket, rugby and soccer will "disappear" from South African television if the government's aim to ban all liquor advertising on television goes through - and that even sport like 2015's World Cup Rugby in England might become "too expensive" to broadcast on television in South Africa.

Bullsh*t.

Since you'll search in vain to find a single expert or insider of the international or local South African television business quoted, or anybody with actual TV knowledge asked or included in the article about how television, acquisitions and rights really work, let me give you the actual facts:

If a ban on liquor advertising on television comes into effect it will not affect sport on television. The sport you've been watching will still happen and be played, it will still be broadcast, and you will still be able to tune it to see it as you have before.

What came first? Sport being played or advertising and sponsorships? Sport was first, and whether advertising comes or goes, people will still play sports, people will remain interested in watching it, and whatever the logistics, price points and wrangling, it will be shown on television.

Did cricket disappear when Benson & Hedges cricket ended because cigarette and tobacco advertising were banned? No. New sponsors fill a void and companies not allowed to advertise on television find other viable marketing alternatives for their brands.

Keep in mind also that sport is the biggest driver of pay-TV.

Keep in mind also that most of the sport watched is already on pay-TV such as MultiChoice's DStv because its premium content tied up in multiple rights which are sold and acquired by places like SuperSport. Especially international sport rights. In contracts signed for multiple years into the future. Already.

Keep in mind also that pay-TV has to derive the bulk of its income from subscription fees; not advertising. If the advertising or specific sponsors diminish or disappear, it's all but guaranteed that new sponsors are found for those events, especially sport.

And as far as actual broadcasting is concerned, in pay-TV its the subscription income, not the advertising income, which is the consistent, primary income and which has to carry rights acquisitions. Advertising is a bonus.

Pay-TV will also not not bring viewers sport, irrespective of whether that sport has sponsorship or not or particular sponsorship. As a programming genre it's too big and valuable to exclude.

Public television will also not not bring viewers sport, irrespective of whether that sport has sponsorship or not - its in the mandate and broadcasting act and licensing conditions that a certain amount of sport and hours has to be shown.

To write total sh*t like saying the 2015 Rugby World Cup won't be shown in South Africa due to liquor and alcohol advertising and sponsorship being dropped, is totally irresponsible made-up bullsh*t.

It. Will. Never. Happen.

Will you pay R141.55 to get access to 6 pay-TV sports channels for a day as part of a 24 hour 'day pass'?

Will you pay R141.55 per day to get access to 6 sports channels for 24 hours?

That's the intriguing question after BSkyB, Britain's biggest pay-TV operator, today announced that it will now be making its sports channels available to non-subscribers on a day-by-day, buy-in basis.

That's a radical rethink of the existing paradigm of pay-TV operators.

Non-subscribers or people who don't have BSkyB's sports channels as satellite TV subscribers, will be allowed to pay £9.99 (R141.55) a day and get access to the channels for a period of only 24 hours as a day pass.