MultiChoice deals ‘move SABC HQ to Randburg’

THE SABC has sold more of the family silver to MultiChoice — at bargain basement prices.

The Sunday Times can reveal that the corporation sold 67 titles to M-Net in February in a three-year deal that cost MultiChoice R30-million; of this, the SABC got R22.1-million, and the rest will go towards digitalisation of the programmes.

The sale comes after the public broadcaster sold a chunk of its archives, including popular soapies such as Generations, Muvhango and Isidingo to the pay-TV giant for R220-million.

This initial deal deepened divisions in the already fractious SABC board and three members who questioned the decision have since been removed.

The new deal, approved by the SABC executive committee in February, includes programmes such as Khumbul’ekhaya, Skeem Saam, Intersexions and Shaka Zulu.

Most of the programmes are Afrikaans titles that were previously licensed to KykNET.

The programmes, according to the contract, would be screened on M-Net’s video-ondemand service.

A senior manager at the public broadcaster said the two deals were clear evidence of how SABC content was being sold to MultiChoice for “peanuts”, adding: “How did they reach the R22-million figure? Why not R500-million? We are talking about the SABC’s exclusive content. This takes away the public broadcaster’s competitiveness.”

The insider said there was a strange relationship between MultiChoice and the SABC management. “We now call Randburg [where MultiChoice has its offices] the headquarters because it seems most decisions are taken there.”

SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who defended the first R220-million deal in a recent interview, this week said he was not aware of the new sale.

“We have so many deals with MultiChoice, I don’t know which one you are talking about,” he said. “We don’t have a R30-million deal with Mul- tiChoice. Let me talk to my team first . . . I can’t do a deal of R30-million. At the least, I negotiate R100-million upwards.”

Further queries were referred to Verona Duwarkah, group executive for TV, who said there was nothing untoward about the transaction. “We enter into contracts with any platform that wants to use our content.”

She said prices were calculated based on the genre and how valuable the content was to the SABC. She dismissed suggestions that the deal harmed the SABC’s competitiveness.

“As the public broadcaster we need to make our content accessible to as many people as possible. We have used that content and it is just sitting there.” She said the deal would assist the SABC to pay royalties to actors and producers.

The new contract also reveals details about the earlier R220million deal. MultiChoice paid $533 000 (about R6.2-million) each for the Generations and Isidingo 2011 seasons, and $586 000 each for the soapies’ 2012 seasons. Royalties would be coming from these fees, the SABC said.

The programmes would still be available to the SABC which will soon launch its Entertainment Channel on DStv.

We need to make our content accessible . . . it is just sitting there