Communiqué 67: South Africa’s biggest football club is building a media engine

Kaizer Chiefs is partnering with Gresham Media Group, one of Africa’s most successful media companies, to build a direct-to-consumer media engine driven by music.

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1. The heat of the moment

On Sunday, April 13, in a match that encapsulated the raw emotion and unpredictability of South African football, Kaizer Chiefs, the country’s most popular football club, overturned a 1-0 deficit to beat Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 at the packed FNB Stadium. This victory secured Kaizer Chiefs’ place in the Nedbank Cup final. The match saw a 57th-minute equalizer from 19-year-old forward Wandile Duba, followed by a clinical 89th-minute winner from substitute Ashley Du Preez, which sent Chiefs’ 16 million+ supporters into euphoric celebrations.

Less than 24 hours later, celebrations shifted from the pitch and the streets of Soweto to the airwaves on Kaizer Chiefs Radio, the club’s new digital radio platform launched earlier this year in partnership with Gresham Media Group, a Johannesburg-based media and entertainment company operating at the intersection of sports and music.

Monday’s 2 PM broadcast featured commentary on standout performances and analysis of the strategic decisions of the Chiefs’ technical team that propelled them to the final. It was repeated twice that evening, with additional slots the next day for those who missed the earlier broadcast.

Traditional sports coverage in South Africa has long leaned on third-party media outlets, but Kaizer Chiefs’ partnership with Gresham Media Group reflects a shift in how major sports clubs think about audience ownership and content monetization. The digital radio station, accessible via the club’s official website, has grown rapidly since launch, reaching over a million listens within its first three months. Its blend of matchday coverage, player interviews, music programming, and lifestyle content designed to keep fans engaged beyond the 90 minutes of play could be the future of sports media in Africa.

2. Records, royalties, and radio goals

Two years after Kaizer Chiefs was founded in 1970, David Gresham, a young musician who gained fame as South Africa’s first television DJ, established his record label, David Gresham Records. In the early days, the label made radio jingles for extra revenue. But things took off when Gresham signed Sean Rennie, a rising talent whose song I’ll Walk With You became an unexpected hit, climbing into South Africa’s Top 10 charts in the mid-1970s. The song’s success not only put Rennie in the spotlight but also introduced Gresham Records, now one of the subsidiaries of the larger Gresham Music Group, as a serious player in the country’s music industry. Soon, other artists began flocking to the label, drawn by its growing reputation.

But it was the company’s early experience producing radio jingles that laid the foundation for its most lucrative business: music licensing and royalties. Having crafted countless jingles for brands and broadcasters, Gresham Records had developed a deep understanding of publishing rights and royalty distribution, especially for music played on the radio. And it leveraged that experience for its artists, ensuring they could receive payments whenever their music was played on the radio or TV. This expertise allowed the company to dominate music licensing in Africa.

Eventually, Gresham expanded internationally, securing licensing agreements with major global rights holders, including Ultimate Music and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC). In 2020, Gresham signed deals with SESAC, The Harry Fox Agency, Mint Digital Services, and Swiss agency SUISA Digital Licensing to manage and collect the royalties earned in Africa for their artist portfolios. This deal expanded its catalog to over one million songs, representing global superstars such as Beyoncé, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, and Bob Dylan.