SABC channels will not show England rugby Test

RUGBY fans hoping to tune into the South African Broadcast Corporation’s (SABC’s) delayed broadcast of the Tests between the Springboks and England at Ellis Park on Saturday and in Port Elizabeth next week will have to make other plans after the national broadcaster dropped the bombshell that the matches would be broadcast only on radio, writes Zeena Isaacs.

The decision was made after a meeting yesterday between SABC acting chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and SuperSport International CEO Happy Ntshingila in which they failed to reach an agreement on the terms under which the SABC could broadcast the matches. SuperSport has the broadcast rights to the Test series.

While the SABC insisted it wanted to broadcast the matches live, as opposed to the usual delayed broadcast, as it was paying for the content, SuperSport as the rights holder rejected the request.

The meeting followed a breakdown in talks between SuperSport and the SABC last Friday over broadcast rights for the opening Test. That resulted in the SABC having to cancel its TV and radio broadcasts, despite running promotions on both mediums for the match.

In a joint statement by the SABC and SuperSport yesterday, Motsoeneng said: “The SABC has decided, as a principle, that for the events that it has rights to (such as in respect of Bafana Bafana) it will broadcast on a live basis. In the case of rugby, SABC does not hold rights and is therefore not able to broadcast these matches on a live basis.”

Ntshingila made it clear that SuperSport was willing to offer the matches to the SABC under the usual terms, but it had refused.

“SuperSport offered to sublicense the television rights to the SABC of Test matches for broadcast on a delayed basis as it has done in the past,” said Ntshingila. “I am pleased that the SABC had acquired radio rights to the Test matches.”