Amazon Prime Video appoints former ex-SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane as director for Africa

Former SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane has been appointed as the director for Prime Video Africa at Amazon Prime Video, where he will be responsible for overseeing the growth and development of Amazon’s video streaming platform in Africa, leveraging his extensive experience as CEO of MultiChoice Group-owned SuperSport from 2016 to 2020 and as MultiChoice group executive for general entertainment until 2022

According to a Variety report, Khobane will work closely with the Prime Video Africa Originals team headed by Ned Mitchell, the content acquisitions team led by Ayanna Lonian, and the product teams responsible for launching customer features.

It’s likely Amazon hopes that Khobane’s 15 years of experience as a television executive; he also worked at M-Net for eight years will help the company secure a stronger position in the highly contested African streaming market. “Khobane joins Amazon with a remit to support the growth of the Prime Video service across sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa and Nigeria,” the company said.

Prime Video costs R79/month in South Africa, offering up to 4K video quality and viewable on up to two devices at the same time. That is aggressively priced next to similar offerings from Netflix, Disney+, and MultiChoice’s Showmax.

Content on Prime Video includes shows such as The Terminal List, The Boys, and the record-breaking Lord of the Rings – Rings of Power. But the streaming service believes that international content alone is not enough of a differentiator as it starts to take the African market more seriously.

Khobane’s new role signals Prime Video’s continued long-term investment in sub-Saharan Africa, and commitment to creating a service that is diverse, attractive, and engaging to all Prime Video members in the region.

Amazon Studios Spokesman

It is the latest bolstering of Amazon’s exec ranks. Late last year, the company’s Amazon Studios arm made several new appointments across its local originals development team for South Africa and Nigeria. Kaye Ann Williams was named head of original scripted & movies for South Africa, while Brendan Gabriel was appointed senior unscripted creative executive for the country.

In Nigeria, Kemi Lala Akindoju became the senior movies creative executive and Mike-Steve Adeleye took the senior scripted creative executive role, with responsibility for finding and developing the next African originals for Prime Video locally and internationally.