SABC apologises to South Africans for PSL ‘blackout’

The 2019/20 Absa Premiership season kicked off on Saturday at 15:00. The Premier Soccer League released a statement on Saturday morning stating that they were only aware of the ‘blackout’ on Friday, the eve of the season.

In the PSL’s statement they declared that “maybe (it’s) time that the nation accept that the SABC is incapable of meeting its requirements” and went on to say that this situation is “unacceptable going forward”.

“The PSL will provide regular updates to the public as a solution is sought to address this unfortunate situation,” ended the PSL. Meanwhile, the SABC informed the public an hour before the first game kick-off’s that they have not reached a “sublicense agreement” with SuperSport.

“The SABC was expected to pay SuperSport R280 million for 144 matches per year for a period of five years, and during that period, the SABC would have made revenue of only R9.8 million per year. This would not have been a commercially viable agreement for the SABC,” read the statement.

“Over the last five years, the public broadcaster has incurred a loss of R1.3 billion in relation to the broadcast of PSL matches and a decision has been taken that any agreement entered into, should be financially sound and sustainable for the business, ensuring that there is return on investment for the organisation. SABC’s Acting Chief Operations Officer (ACOO) stated Craig van Rooyen that the “SABC would like to apologise to all South Africans. However, for the financial sustainability of the SABC, we will not continue with deals that are not commercially viable.”

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