Story audio is generated using AI
SuperSport has trumpeted the success of its World Cup broadcast effort on digital channels, reporting more than 670-million video views on platforms including YouTube and TikTok.
The sport broadcaster’s digital focus underscores the growing importance of online platforms for legacy players such as SuperSport.
As a group, MultiChoice appears to have evolved its strategy beyond just aiming for DStv subscribers, realising that a captive audience on any digital platform has value in an attention-led economy.
Africa’s largest sports broadcaster said the Fifa World Cup 2026 “delivered extraordinary results for the MultiChoice Group business, with SuperSport’s content strategy and digital innovation playing a central role in driving record levels of engagement across Africa”.
Throughout the tournament, the company’s #EverythingCanWait online campaign generated 19.1-billion views across social platforms.
SuperSport was able to achieve 677-million video views, with SuperSport’s YouTube and TikTok platforms contributing 84% of the total.
The broadcaster reported that SuperSport.com attracted 10.1-million visitors, while the SuperSport Predictor platform registered 175,615 users, generating 3.81-million predictions. SuperSport’s website also drove 417,591 referrals to DStv’s video-on-demand service.
“These numbers were not simply the product of broadcasting football’s biggest tournament. They were driven by a deliberate strategy to take SuperSport’s World Cup coverage beyond the live match and build a digital-first content ecosystem designed around how modern African sports fans consume, share and engage with football,” said the company.
Shifting consumer viewing behaviour and consumption habits towards social media, user-generated content and on-demand platforms have forced MultiChoice to change how it reaches audiences. For a number of years, the DStv owner has found ways to tie social media campaigns to its linear programming efforts.
Previously the group used Twitter Spaces as marketing for reality shows on its now-defunct Showmax streaming service, such as The Real Housewives of Durban and The Real Housewives of Gqeberha.
MultiChoice is able to use such campaigns to increase awareness about its various offerings and programming slate while enticing more people to subscribe to DStv. Not all online viewers will become paying customers, but the company can still monetise its large audience through advertising.
SuperSport said it produced 817 videos across YouTube and TikTok during the tournament and built a paid audience of 11.4-million. Its content generated 54.4-million engagements, “demonstrating the strength of the brand’s ability to turn live football moments into digital conversations”.
The broadcaster used its YouTube channel to publish highlights shortly after each match of the international football showcase.
Rendani Ramovha, director for sports content in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa at Canal+, said: “The Fifa World Cup is the world’s greatest sporting event, and our ambition was to ensure every viewer in Africa experienced it in a way that matched its scale and significance. What makes this achievement so special is that every part of Canal+ came together behind one vision — to make this Africa’s World Cup.”
“By making every match available across every DStv package, celebrating Africa’s historic representation, embracing multilingual storytelling, introducing innovative programming and delivering record-breaking digital engagement, we created the most comprehensive Fifa World Cup experience ever offered to African audiences.”
Business Day
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