SABC to get TV boot 24/08/2009 |
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The SA Football Association (Safa) are considering stripping the SABC of the rights to broadcast Bafana Bafana matches.
This follows a furore over the SABC’s detested practice of broadcasting matches “delayed live”.
Safa’s contract with the SABC ends after the 2010 World Cup. Negotiations for new broadcast rights are due to begin early next year. Safa officials have approached pay channel SuperSport to explore the matter.
Safa CEO Raymond Hack said sponsors were unhappy with matches shown hours after kick-off. “We will go for the best product in the market if we have to. The SABC must also step up to the plate. Our agreement is that midweek matches start at 8.30pm but sometimes we are dictated to by visiting teams who have to travel home immediately after matches. We have written to the SABC expressing our unhappiness.”
Given the delicacy of the situation, the relevant people did not want to be quoted, but the Sunday Times can confirm there is a possibility of Bafana TV rights going to SuperSport. This would parallel the Premier Soccer League-SuperSport deal done two years ago. The latest “delayed live” broadcast was the SA-Serbia friendly last week.
A SuperSport insider said the Bafana rights would be a great property for the pay channel. But he warned that there were a lot of sensitivities, including Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) regulations. SuperSport has the cricket and rugby rights and Bafana is the only missing piece of the pie.
He warned that it won’t be touched until it came from the top — the government and Safa.
“We know the SABC have a contractual obligation between 7pm and 8pm. They have long-standing contracts with advertisers, but we gave them dates well in advance and they assured us there wouldn’t be any delayed matches,” Hack said.
“We have never been approached, so we have not given it much thought,” said the cagey CEO of SuperSport International, Imtiaz Patel.
Patel said that SuperSport recognises that Bafana matches should be available on free- to-air television.
“However, if Safa and the minister of sport, in the national interest, requires SuperSport to come to the party without negatively impacting on the free-to-air consideration, then SuperSport will seriously apply its mind,” Patel said.
Patel added that it was a sensitive matter that will require discussions at the highest level if it were to be considered at all.
There was a huge outcry when the PSL sold its rights to SuperSport in 2007. The national broadcaster took the PSL and SuperSport to court, arguing that football was taken away from ordinary people who could not afford the pay channel’s monthly subscriptions.
SuperSport sold secondary rights to the SABC and the deal meant the SABC were obliged to screen substantially more games compared with previous seasons. And without a dedicated sports channel, the SABC still could not beam all the matches allocated to it.
In January, the SABC proposed to Icasa that derbies become listed events. This would mean only free-to-air broadcasters would be allowed to bid for the rights to matches between clubs of the same city that draw fierce support. The PSL and Safa made submissions opposing the listing of derby matches.
The two sports bodies said professional sport was a business and the revenue from the sales of broadcast rights would be used to develop sport.
The SABC argued that it could not afford to pay the same rates for soccer broadcast rights as private broadcasters, but that it could offer maximum soccer exposure to the public.
It was also reported that the SABC owed SuperSport R100-million relating to PSL matches and cricket matches that the SABC sub-licenses from MultiChoice’s sports arm.
Negotiations between SuperSport and the SABC over the debt are continuing.
(Source: Thetimes.co.za)
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