Sports Content Creators Reshape How South Africans Follow the Game

Zeph Masote, NBA South Africa country head, put it plainly: creators are a vital bridge between sport and the audiences it seeks to reach. That observation, made at the second Africa Creator Festival Sports Summit held at NBA offices in Sandton on 3 September, captures something millions of South African sports fans already experience daily, even if they have never thought to name it.

The summit brought together creators, athletes, broadcasters, sporting organisations and brands to examine a transformation already well underway. South African sport is being remade not in broadcast studios or stadiums, but in the hands of podcasters, social media commentators and online personalities who are changing how people discover, watch and talk about athletic competition. For ordinary fans, this shift means more ways to connect with teams and athletes through voices and formats that feel immediate and embedded in everyday culture.

Additional reference context is available at https://themediaonline.co.za/2026/09/how-creators-are-shaping-the-next-chapter-of-south-african-sport/.

Additional reference context is available at https://themediaonline.co.za/how-creators-are-shaping-the-next-chapter-of-south-african-sport/.

The mechanics of watching sport have changed fundamentally. Fans no longer sit passively with a single broadcast. They may follow a live television transmission while simultaneously engaging with creator commentary, joining social media conversations or participating in online watch-alongs hosted by personalities they already follow. This does not replace traditional broadcasting. It expands the experience and allows audiences to participate in ways that match their own interests, whether that means expert analysis and statistics or humour, personality and the feeling of watching alongside a community of like-minded supporters.

Tumelo Selikane, managing director of Nielsen Sports South Africa, made the measurement stakes clear. Television ratings alone no longer capture the full audience around a sporting event. Streaming platforms, social media commentary and creator-led content extend reach well beyond what traditional tools record. “You’re not just content creators. You’re broadcasting sports content and commentary,” Selikane said.

Comedian and podcaster Eugene Khoza’s World Cup Watch Along Party with Trevor Noah illustrated the civic warmth this format can generate. The event recreated the unity, debate and companionship of watching football with friends, even when audiences participated from entirely different locations. “Watch-alongs create a community around the game. People are not only watching the sport; they are sharing the reactions, humour and conversations that make watching together so special,” Khoza explained. For fans who cannot afford stadium tickets or live far from major venues, that sense of shared experience matters.

Meanwhile, a critical challenge surfaces when examining women’s sport. Audience attention typically peaks during major tournaments but drops sharply once competition ends, leaving athletes and their stories largely invisible between events. South African netball captain Khanyisa “KC” Chawane encouraged brands and creators to invest in the full athlete journey, including training, recovery, setbacks and personal ambitions. “A tournament is not the whole story. It’s just a chapter of a bigger story,” Chawane said. Proteas Women player Sinalo Jafta reinforced the point: “Once you invest and you actually see this team grow, that’s where your return on investment is.” For fans of women’s sport, consistent year-round storytelling means reasons to stay connected rather than tuning in only once every few years.

For broadcasters and rights holders, these changing habits create opportunities to follow audiences across multiple platforms. SAFA commercial and marketing manager Errol Madala reflected the shift: “How we look at media will be less about the format and more about the audience.” The SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, has similarly recognised the growing communities forming online and is incorporating social media and the SABC Plus app to bring those communities closer to the organisation. Public access to sport, and to the conversations surrounding it, remains a genuine civic concern as audiences fragment across platforms with varying costs and availability.

Authenticity, though, must be supported by consistency and professional delivery. Ntokozo Masimula, group account director from Ogilvy PR and Influence, emphasised that “people trust people,” encouraging creators to remain relatable in how they deliver content. Sibu Mabena, founder and CEO of Duma Collective, stressed the importance of understanding audience preferences. “Study your audience. You have to understand how your audience is going to help you reach your KPIs,” Mabena said. Brands and sporting organisations, for their part, must look beyond follower numbers when evaluating creator influence. Audience relevance, engagement quality and a creator’s ability to tell credible stories offer more meaningful measures than raw reach alone.

The opportunity ahead is not simply to use creators as promotional tools. It is to recognise their role in how sport is discovered, watched and discussed across South African society. Creators must continue developing distinctive work and building sustainable businesses. Broadcasters, sporting organisations and brands must provide access, investment and room for genuine collaboration. The question that lingers after Sandton is whether the institutions that have long controlled sports media are willing to share enough of that space to let the next generation of sporting stories reach the audiences waiting for them.