Now e.tv puts one past SABC

THE SABC continued to be left out in the cold yesterday in the aftermath of the sale of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) broadcast rights to SuperSport International.

THE SABC continued to be left out in the cold yesterday in the aftermath of the sale of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) broadcast rights to SuperSport International, with the pay channel deciding to sell the rights to the season-opening Telkom Charity Cup to free-to-air channel e.tv.

Sources said the SABC was given first option to buy the rights to the annual one-day extravaganza last Friday — but the public broadcaster ignored the offer.

The SABC had not responded to the offer by Tuesday, when SuperSport decided to begin talks with e.tv.

E.tv executive producer Monde Twala confirmed that negotiations began on Tuesday, and that the deal was confirmed the same day.

“We are excited at the prospect of finally televising the domestic premiership live,” he said.

“We will televise all three matches live on that day, and we have enough skills and talents to carry out the project.”

Twala said SuperSport would produce the show while e.tv would produce a separate production for their station.

The announcement comes just a few days after the SABC apparently decided to ignore the launch of the tournament in North West on Monday.

The developments are the sequel to the dispute between the SABC and the PSL which began last week when SuperSport was awarded the broadcast rights to the premiership in a deal worth more than R1bn over five years.

The standoff claimed its first victim this week when radio presenter Robert Marawa was shown the door at Metro FM — which is owned by the SABC.

This was after he interviewed his boss at SuperSport, Imtiaz Patel, on the SABC-owned radio station.

E.tv is in negotiations with SuperSport regarding the free-to-air rights for league matches.

The tournament is to be broadcast simultaneously live on SuperSport and e.tv, which will allow fans without pay-television to see the soccer matches.

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