Showmax.com hijacks Matchday Live to revolutionise Premier League viewing across Africa
In an awkward, live conversation with Manchester United legend, Eric Cantona – in his debut appearance on Matchday Live – host Julia Stuart and Owen Hargreaves attempted to placate the notorious Red Devils’ captain. Their efforts were in vain, as the Frenchman eventually tired of the conversation and stormed off the set. He offered a rambling monologue about revolution as his parting shot.
Stuart says, “What can you and the millions of Manchester United fans around the world expect; what will be unfolding as the season progresses on their television sets?”
Cantona sarcastically chuckles and says, “television” a few times before standing and removing his microphone, jacket and tie, and proceeding to deliver a concluding monologue to camera.
He says, “How many people in this world don’t even own a television? What of [sic] them? To be truly beautiful, the game should be everywhere. It cannot be stuck on the wall – or just in the bar – no, it must fly. Then my friends, no one, no one should believe the Premier League is out of their league. It must be for everyone.”
He concludes, “And this marks the beginning; the revolution has begun.”
As he walks off-camera, we hear Julia Stuart asking Owen Hargreaves, “what must I do?”, before the broadcast cuts to a test pattern.
The show returns after the ad break with what appears to be a Cantona-led pirate broadcast.
Cantona defiantly declares, “The revolution will not be televised; the revolution will be live.”
In what is possibly the greatest live TV stunt ever staged, Showmax.com revealed to all 44 of its African markets – simultaneously, via linear TV, its streaming platform and YouTube Live – that football will never be the same again. Quite literally, because it has the most compelling Premier League offering in the world.
GSMA Intelligence data suggests there are more than half a billion unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa, alone. This is seven times greater than the predicted number of television sets in the same region (74.76m according to Statista.com).
Hundreds of millions of people will finally be able to consume the greatest football league on the planet, for a fraction of what it costs to attend a live match in England, while cheering on hundreds of African players, in real time.
It’s the Premier League in your pocket. Welcome to the revolution!
