Possible Canal+ Victims: SuperSportBET, SuperSport Park, SA20 League And SuperSport Schools

During the week, it was announced that MultiChoice ended it's sponsorship for the DStv Delicious Festival after 13 years. This forms part of Canal+'s cost cutting measures after acquiring the company by late 2025.

This news doesn't really come as a surprise to some outlets as Canal+ had been trying to exit services which has been deemed non-core to its strategy. And DStv Delicious Festival served as an unnecessary expense for the French broadcaster.

Other assets also at MultiChoice that could be under review come from SuperSport and this ranges from SuperSport Park, SuperSportBET, SuperSport Schools and SA20 League. 

SuperSport Park is a cricket stadium located in Centurion, It is the home ground of the Titans cricket team and hosts international Test, ODI, and T20 matches. This comes with a lot of physical expenses that the company doesn't need.

Because Canal+ can't retrench anyone for three years that doesn't block them from selling SuperSport Park. In the event of a sale, workers would fall under the new owner's jurisdiction and not that of MultiChoice and SuperSport.

SuperSportBET is an online sports betting and casino platform launched in January 2024 by MultiChoice Group in partnership with KingMakers (Betking). It still operates at a loss compared to established brands like Betway and HollywoodBet.

If it's situation doesn't improve there's a strong chance that Canal+ will discontinue its services.

The SA20 (officially Betway SA20) is South Africa’s premier domestic T20 franchise cricket league, launched in 2023 as Cricket South Africa’s (CSA). It forms part of a venture with MultiChoice and SuperSport with them having minority stake.

The reason this comes under the microscope is due to the stake as Canal+ serves a distributor of sporting events. They're not the type to offer grassroot events or sponsorships which is where SuperSport Schools also factors in.

Not that Canal+ also owns SuperSport Schools, if they were to be paying for a separate production facility, travel costs for some of the players and other accomodations. Those could form part of the cost cutting measures at MultiChoice.

Sporty TV Secures Rights To The Upcoming FIFA World Cup Games

Sports broadcasting service SportyTV has announced it has secured the rights to show all 104 matches of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 in South Africa on a pay-TV basis.

SportyTV inked the deal one year after launching in the South African market, and it said all World Cup matches will be streamed on its streaming platform.

It has apps for Android and iOS, as well as support for major TV brands. Currently, accessing SportyTV requires creating a SportyBet account.

SportyTV also has a channel on Openview, which it launched in 2025. However, Openview is a free-to-view satellite TV platform, and SportyTV has secured the pay-TV rights to the FIFA World Cup.

The company has made no explicit announcement about whether it will or will not show the matches on eMedia’s Openview platform.

“Having entered South Africa with a bold statement through the broadcast of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, the platform now acquires the biggest sporting event on the planet,” SportyTV announced.

“This move firmly establishes its dominance in one of Africa’s most competitive media landscapes.”

SportyTV said the production will match the scale of the rights and that it will deliver comprehensive pre- and post-match coverage from its studios in Cape Town and Madrid.

A lineup of commentators and football pundits will be revealed soon, with the company adding that it will deploy crews in the United States, Canada and Mexico to follow the South African national team.

“Beyond live coverage, the platform will execute a fully integrated 360° content strategy, combining always-on digital output, social-first storytelling, and real-time fan engagement.”

Elias Gallego, SportyGroup’s VP of business development, marketing, and media, said that the 2026 World Cup is the perfect stage to showcase the company’s digital content ecosystem in South Africa.

“With this agreement, SportyTV is revamping the model for sports broadcasting in emerging markets, combining accessibility, premium production, and integrated monetisation at scale.”

Alongside the upcoming FIFA World Cup games, SportyTV also provides live content, original programming and digital-first experiences in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

According to its website, the company’s programming is available on Openview’s channel 125. Its app has over five million downloads across its markets on Android and iOS.

SportyTV said that it wants to position itself as the “definitive home” of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in South Africa.

Could Canal+ Look To Discontinue GOtv As They Restructure DStv Packages?

As readers already heard, Canal+ is looking to restructure it's DStv packages because MultiChoice offered about 17 of that in SA. To top it off in other MultiChoice territories, they distribute GOtv which adds another layer of complexity in those plans.

Since 2023, MultiChoice had lost over 3 million subscribers and that the new owners have taken upon themselves to stop further price increases. They're trying to cut down on expenses and make MultiChoice's services affordable.

In Canal+ Afrique territories, their packages are a lot cheaper and it was revealed by the French giant that MultiChoice charges way too much.

Getting back to the packages, MultiChoice offers both DStv and GOtv, and now under French hands there's a strong possibility that one of the two likely GOtv will be put out of its misery.

If the plan here is to make DStv affordable to a point where inflation is very minimal as seen with Canal+ Afrique. There really wouldn't be much need for a GOtv as it was structured by MultiChoice as lightweight or lower budget version of DStv.

If you're folding this structure on DStv possible case scenario here is that Canal+ opts to consolidate the two under one brand if not also opt to keep either DTT or DTH onboard.

Like I mentioned, there is a lot of overlapping between these two.

Take for instance, DStv Compact Plus and GOtv's most expensive offering Supa Plus both carry the same sporting events. Then there's DStv Compact and GOtv Supa/Max that offers a mix of local and international content. 

Followed by DStv Access and Family alongside GOtv Jolli and Jinja which are all aimed at families and kids with a couple of local channels and kids stuff.

All these packages are priced similarly and in the event this restructure takes place it's less likely that Canal+ will try to make these packages rival each other. They've already decapitated Showmax after criticising MultiChoice for making it rival with DStv.

If I had to guess how this could as well pan out maybe Canal+ will merge DStv Compact+ and GOtv Supa Plus with DStv Premium. They've made a majority of channels on these packages accessible to DStv Compact and GOtv Supa customers.

Then there's DStv Family and GOtv Max maybe Canal+ will look to merge that with DStv Compact and GOtv Supa. Just like DStv Premium, MultiChoice has made a couple of channels viewable on there and I mean the entire kids and music lineup.

This would leave DStv Access and GOtv Jinja/Jolli I'm expecting for this to go unscatched considering the pricing and the fact there's minimal overlaps with other DStv and GOtv packages.

Canal+ Dumps DStv Delicious Festival Due To Aggressive Cost Cutting At MultiChoice

The Sunday World newspaper, citing sources, reports that Canal+ has decided to dump the DStv Delicious International Food & Music Festival as part of Canal+'s drastic and aggressive ongoing cost-cutting at MultiChoice.

The DStv Delicious Festival, that's been often-criticised in past editions, started in 2013 and held its 12th one in September at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit.

DStv Delicious as a subscriber retention, potential upsell and marketing event, focused on the DStv mass-market and combined music acts, including international artists, with a food marketplace as a culinary showcase, combined with a fashion display component that involved local South African fashion designers.

Canal+ is now removing DStv as naming-rights sponsor with multiple sources who said that MultiChoice is done with its sponsorship of DStv Delicious.

Canal+ said that "Since tak­ing own­er­ship of Mul­tiChoice last year, Canal+ has put in place a stra­tegic plan to ensure a sus­tain­able future for the com­pany, put­ting it back on a path­way towards growth. This is essen­tial to ensure that con­sumers are able to con­tinue to enjoy com­pel­ling local and inter­na­tional con­tent on lead­ing plat­forms and that we can con­tinue to sup­port South Africa’s cre­at­ive indus­tries."

"We are proud to work with a broad eco­sys­tem of part­ners, includ­ing SMES and local pro­duc­tion houses, which are crit­ical to our busi­ness and to the growth of the cre­at­ive sec­tor across Africa."

"We remain com­mit­ted to the under­tak­ings we made dur­ing the acquis­i­tion pro­cess and are focused on build­ing a strong, sus­tain­able busi­ness to the bene­fit of South African con­sumers and cre­at­ives alike.

CBS Boss Alec Botnick Has Been Named President Of Nickelodeon Animation Studios

A longtime CBS exec, Botnick will lead the studio into its next chapter while continuing to serve in his current role as Executive Vice President (EVP) of CBS Studios Comedy Development, Head of Animation and Alternative.

Additionally, after BET Studios in December became a label of CBS Studios, the same is now being done with Nickelodeon Animation Studios, which also will function as a label within the David Stapf-run TV studio going forward.

With that, all production units in Cheeks’ expanded portfolio after the Skydance merger are now being consolidated into one, CBS Studios.

As the head of Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Botnick will help the studio reinvent its approach to reaching preschoolers and evolve into a multi-platform brand. He’ll also take charge of Nickelodeon’s unscripted arm, which includes the Kids’ Choice Awards. Of course, he will also guide the development of new TV series while overseeing Nickelodeon’s most important franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and PAW Patrol.

A former WME agent, Botnick joined CBS Studios in 2015 as Vice President (VP), Comedy Development and was upped to executive vp in 2021. 

While at CBS, Botnick has helped develop scripted series including for animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, Everybody Still Hates Chris and Digman!, along with live-action comedies Ghosts, The Neighborhood, and the upcoming vampire comedy Eternally Yours, as well as Paramount+’s Australian comedy Colin From Accounts. He also developed Dead to Me, and American Vandal at Netflix. He will continue to develop scripted comedies and alternative titles for CBS Studios while maintaining oversight of animated development across the CBS, Comedy Central and MTV brands.

In more executive news, Ashley Kaplan, who previously served as Nickelodeon’s EVP of Unscripted and Digital Franchise Studios, will shift into a consulting role on Monday, April 13, supporting the TV Media division on special projects through the end of the year.

Kaplan had been co-running the animated studio with Botnick for the past four months. Back in November, three months after former CBS President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cheeks added oversight of Paramount cable brands such as MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET in his new role as Paramount’s Chair of TV Media, he unveiled leadership for most divisions.

Kaplan and Botnick were tapped at the time to oversee Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Over her seven-year tenure at Nickelodeon, Kaplan has shepherded the company’s large YouTube output in form of short-form content, including Kid Cowboy.

Jules Borkent, EVP of Global Commercial Partnerships and Operations, will continue to oversee the business and strategy of Nickelodeon Kids & Family.

Read Cheeks' memo in its entirety below:

Team,  

I’m excited to announce that Alec Botnick has been appointed President of Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Alec will lead Nickelodeon Animation Studios into its next chapter, while also continuing his current role as EVP of CBS Studios comedy development, alternative & animation. Similar to BET Studios, Nickelodeon Animation Studios will now operate as its own label for television within CBS Studios.

For Nickelodeon, Alec will oversee the animation studio and its evolution across digital, TV and streaming as we reimagine how we meet today’s kids and families. Alec’s leadership will be essential in shaping our next phase as Nickelodeon reinvents how we reach preschoolers, starting where discovery happens first and evolving into a true multi-platform brand. He also will lead Nickelodeon’s unscripted programming for television, including the Kids’ Choice Awards, while also guiding the development of new series and overseeing our long-running hits, ensuring Nickelodeon remains home to the world’s most iconic kids’ franchises like SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, PAW PATROL and more.  

Alec will continue to develop scripted comedies and alternative projects for CBS Studios, as well as maintain oversight of animated development across the CBS, Comedy Central and MTV brands for owned and third-party platforms. Series and projects Alec has helped develop include GHOSTS and ETERNALLY YOURS for CBS, the critically acclaimed Australian comedy COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS for Paramount+ and the animated series “Odd Jobs” for Prime Video.  

I also want to share that Ashley Kaplan will transition to a consulting role beginning Monday. In this capacity, she will support the TV Media division on special projects through the end of the year. We are grateful to Ashley for her years of leadership and appreciate her continued partnership.  

Jules Borkent, executive vice president of global commercial partnerships and operations, will continue to oversee Nickelodeon Kids & Family’s business and strategy, working in partnership with Alec and other key stakeholders to maximize the Nick brand.  

Please join me in congratulating Alec on this well-deserved role. I’m excited for what’s ahead as we continue building the next chapter of Nickelodeon.  

All the best,  

George