According to sportbusiness.com’s Imran Yusuf, it’s not a simple case of SA football’s governing body just renewing with the public broadcaster.
The South African Football Association has said it will consider a deal with broadcasters other than its incumbent rights-holder, the SABC, when it takes its media rights to market later this year.
In comments to television news channel eNCA, Tebogo Motlanthe, Chief Executive Officer of SAFA, said that with the deal coming to an end in September, “of course we need to get into new discussions with the SABC. But we must also now look at other broadcasters, because we have many products, and if they are only with the national broadcaster, it becomes a problem”.
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SAFA appears to want more coverage of its content on the public broadcaster’s linear channels that it currently receives.
“An example… Bafana [Bafana, the South African men’s team] goes to Liberia… SABC was there, but Bafana was not on SABC 1, 2, or 3… it was on OTT … most people don’t know about this,” said Motlanthe. “This defeats the principle of being a sport of national interest. Those issues we want on the table when we go to the talk with the SABC.”
Motlanthe was referring to South Africa’s Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier against Liberia on 28 March.
The SABC and SAFA originally signed a four-year contract, from 2019 to 2022, which was extended to September 2023.
At the time of the original agreement, the SABC and SAFA said the contract would annually include six men’s national team matches, including three home qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations, two friendlies, and the Nelson Mandela Challenge, along with other inventory.
