Dark cloud engulfs Super Diski
FOR years, it has been local footballers’ El Dorado, a booming industry which has provided a home for scores of Zimbabwean players, with its rich pickings transforming their lives.
Some, like Benjani Mwaruwari, Knowledge Musona, Marshall Munetsi and Teenage Hadebe, have used it as a springboard into Europe.
Super Diski has become something like the extended top-flight league of domestic football, where the majority of the best of this country’s players ply their trade, enjoying the comforts of a proper professional set-up.
Warriors star, Khama Billiat, is ranked the most valuable footballer in the South African Premiership at R38,6 million. He is also the highest paid star in the league, with an annual salary of R10 million at about R833,333 a month.
In just one night in June 2016, Billiat pocketed R450 000 for winning the South African Footballer of the Season, Players Player of the Season and Midfielder of the Season.
Agents, and other downstream industries in this country connected to this game, have also benefited from the Super Diski multi-million rand football industry.
But, it appears, things are about to change amid the Covid-19 menace.
‘‘(SAFA president, Danny) Jordaan understands that the PSL could lose hundreds of millions in revenue by suspending or cancelling its season, but there simply is no choice in the matter,’’ South African newspaper, Daily Maverick, noted.
The Covid-19 pandemic could shake its main revenue source, ravaging SuperSport’s financial base, and concerns about the future of the league, especially in its current shape as a money-generating machine, are growing.
◆ Will Super Diski emerge from this crisis with the same financial muscle it had which enabled its clubs to fish around the continent, especially the Zimbabwean market, for its imports? ◆ Will some of the clubs, who have running huge contracts with their players, including the foreigners, still have the capacity to pay them after this storm?
◆ If a heavyweight club like Orlando Pirates raise the red flag, warning the future looks bleak and things could be very bad in the recovery period, what chances do the smaller clubs in the league have of weathering this hurricane?
◆ Given most of the funding for the clubs comes from the television rights, thanks to their R2 billion deal with SuperSport, what will happen in the sponsor’s capacity is badly eroded by the Covid-19 tsunami?
◆ Already some analysts have warned of Multichoice’s vulnerability, arguing the company’s income could be badly hit as subscribers — wooed by live sport which has been brought to a halt — either withdraw or downgrade their packages.
◆ It can’t be a coincidence that Netflix, the streaming American TV firm whose package goes for just US$11 a month, has reported a huge subscriber base increase in sub-Saharan Africa during this lockdown as many viewers switch to it. ◆ The streamer, which now has over 183 million global subscribers, announced on Tuesday that with more people now watching entertainment programming at home as the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, this has propelled Netflix to a strong first three months of 2020. ◆ The company added 15.8 million subscribers, during the first quarter of the year, representing a period of sensational record growth, having added less than half those numbers, about seven million, during the same period last year. ◆ Netflix doesn’t offer live sport but, given one needs Wifi or an internet connection to watch its range of movies, it then gives that person the added value of using YouTube to view the classic past sports programmes, or events, of his or her choice.
◆ Netflix also provides its viewers with a range of many sports documentary and films, like Every Given Sunday which DStv have turned to in these darks days, while offering the nee blockbuster series like Michael Jordan’s ‘‘ The Last Dance,’’ which has just been added to the menu.
Already, Multichoice are coming up with a range of interventions to try and keep a hold on its subscribers in a sign of the challenges the company could be facing.
‘‘As a lockdown bonus, DStv viewers with paid-up subscriptions are being upgraded to the next bouquet for the duration of the subscription period,’’ Multchoice said in a statement.
Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe, said the MultiChoice Group had made the decision to provide bonus upgrades to provide support during the lockdown, a time when households were watching more television.
‘‘All active and disconnected DStv Access, Family, Compact and Compact Plus customers who pay for their current package will be upgraded to a higher package to enjoy a wider viewing experience.’’
Multichoice says it is merely supporting its valued subscribers during these difficult times.
“The upgrades are a reward for customers’ support for the DStv brand and a means of supporting customers at this difficult time,” Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe, said.
But, experts have been warning that, without the lure of live sport, things could be difficult for DStv and, in turn, cripple SuperSport’s capacity to keep pumping tens of millions of rand into entities like Super Diski.
‘‘ The broadcaster we do worry most about, however, is DStv,’’ www.bizcommunity.com, who pride themselves as Africa’s premier business to business news site across 18 industries, cautioned.
‘‘It is a well-known fact that sport is a primary driver of Dstv subscriptions. However, what the coronavirus has done is effectively shut down all sports worldwide.
‘‘With effectively no sport to broadcast, how are DStv going to encourage subscribers not to cancel their subscriptions and move across to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime?’’
Some can argue that Super Diski is protected by the contract it entered into with SuperSport.
But, as noted by Daily Maverick, the broadcaster can also argue that the league is already in breach of that agreement, since it is not providing it with live and new material to show to its subscribers, as agreed in the deal.
‘‘Its funding, through substantial broadcast right payments, is vital to the sustainability of rugby and soccer in particular,’’ the South African newspaper argued.
‘‘Rugby and football earn hundreds of millions of rand annually through rights sold to SuperSport for domestic and international competitions that South African teams are involved in.
‘‘ There couldn’t be a worse time for lack of content. Technically, rugby and soccer are in breach of their contracts because they are not producing content for the pay channel to broadcast.
‘‘As it stands now, there is no sport being played almost anywhere in the world and, therefore, no live matches for SuperSport to broadcast to its paying audience and they are technically in breach to their advertisers.
‘‘Subscribers, who might only have a monthly DStv subscription because they are sports watchers, could suspend or cancel their accounts because they are receiving no live sport. It’s potentially a downward spiral.’’