MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 95

available in 19 countries in Sub-
Saharan Africa including Kenya.
The phenomenon growth has been
heavily subsidized by the magnate’s
pocket with a steady revenue stream
yet to be clearly outlined.
In April of 2017, Kwese Sports
signed a deal with US-based sports
broadcasting powerhouse ESPN to
air the exclusive ESPN channel on
the Kwese’ TV bouquet. In addition
to this, the two have partnered to
provide online content to leverage
ESPN’s position as the world’s
leading digital sports brand to
ride on Kwese Sports pan-African
spread. As a discerning sports
fan, I was taken by surprise when
clicking on the www.espn.com link
only to be redirected to the www.
KweseESPN.com website.
Kwese Sports has also sought to
develop a mobile application (Kwese
TV Everywhere app) to give its
audiences 24/7 access to the latest
happenings in sports across the
world. On paper, this looks good and
veritable, though from a commercial
perspective, as they would say, ‘Show
me the Money!’ All rosy thus? Not
so fast …
According to accounts in the US,
ESPN too has not been doing
as well it may look. With the
millennials and older audiences in
the US market turning away from
cable TV as well as the pricey rate
tags attached to the various sports
they seek to broadcast, it is looking
like a tough time indeed.
As late as March 2017, the company
cut several middle and lower level
jobs to save hundreds of millions
in operating costs. It also dropped
some of its highly paid sports casters
to put a lid on the wage bill. In the
same time though, the subscriber
numbers have continued to drop in
their hundreds of thousands.
Back to Kwese Sports, a cheeky
friend of mine reminded me that
‘‘ Sports associations may also need to review
how they price some of their products.
While it is agreeable not to settle for less, the
increasingly expensive sports media rights
will eventually price most media companies
out and the bubble will burst on all – to the
detriment of the sports associations, teams
and sports fans.’’
the now-defunct Gateway TV
(GTV ) had a similar color hue
(Orange). GTV had taken the
African sub-continent by storm in
the mid-2000s and even secured
the rights to the EPL for a season
almost running SuperSport out
of town before closing shop
unceremoniously in 2008-9. The
company had signed TV rights
deals with major African leagues
including Ghana and Uganda, to
name but a few (sounds familiar
…?)
Future’s here?
What then does the future of sports
broadcasting portend? Social media
site Facebook announced in May
that it will provide live coverage of
Major League Baseball games on
its Facebook Live platform. This is
bound to be a major shift in sports
consumption and likely to be noted
by other major sporting disciplines.
Online live streaming as has been by
YouTube of major sporting events
such as the Olympics and the World
Cup will be pursued too.