SABC to broadcast Proteas games at Cricket World Cup

With the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup underway, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa has welcomed the sub-licensing deal between the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Multichoice (Supersport) to broadcast the tournament.

Kodwa said the deal allows all South Africans to watch the Proteas men’s national team at the Cricket World Cup, which is taking place in India.

Agreement

 “We welcome the commitment by the SABC and Supersport to sign the sub-licensing agreement which will allow all South Africans to watch the Cricket World Cup and our very own Proteas men’s cricket team.

“The agreement may not be the best commercially for both parties, but I appreciate that in the national interest they have found a win-win solution. Once more, I call for a  permanent solution on the matter of sports broadcast rights which will allow all South Africans to watch sport of national interest,” Kodwa said.

Proteas

Kodwa has wished the Proteas team well as they take on the formidable opponents in the tournament.

 “I wish the Proteas men’s national cricket team everything of the best in the Cricket World Cup, as they begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on Saturday, 7 October 2023.”

The Proteas will play nine round-robin matches before the two semi-finals and final take place, which will also be broadcast live by the state broadcaster on SABC 3 and on their streaming platforms sabcsport.com and SABC Plus.

ALSO READ: SABC reaches agreement with Multichoice to broadcast Bok World Cup games

Broadcast restrictions

However, SABC said MultiChoice had restricted the Cricket World Cup 2023 broadcast on the OVHD (eMedia Platform). 

“The SABC has formally lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission regarding this behaviour of Multichoice.

“To mitigate the block out of the cricket on OVHD, the SABC has approached eMedia to jointly acquire the Cricket World Cup 2023 rights from MultiChoice to ensure all eMedia OVHD customers are able to view these games. Unfortunately, eMedia has not agreed to this,” the SABC said.

🚨 𝕄𝔼𝔻𝕀𝔸 𝕊𝕋𝔸𝕋𝔼𝕄𝔼ℕ𝕋 🚨

SABC and Multichoice have reached sub-licensing agreement for the Cricket World Cup 2023 following further negotiations.

Read more 🔗 https://t.co/IJ5S5H26xU#SABCSportCricket

— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) October 5, 2023

Rugby World Cup

The SABC and MultiChoice were also locked in protracted negotiations over the Rugby World Cup.

Kodwa stepped in to resolve the standoff between MultiChoice and the SABC over the rights to broadcast the Springboks games after the national broadcaster refused to pay MultiChoice R37.7 million for the exclusive right to show all potential Springbok games live.

This would have meant the matches would have only been available on SuperSport on DStv’s Premium package, with only around 1.3 million South Africans being able to watch the games.

ALSO READ: Proteas bowlers are capable, even without Nortje, says Simons