DStv warning

South Africa’s Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has issued a “friendly warning” to MultiChoice, eMedia, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) over their sports broadcasting rights feud.

During a recent media briefing, McKenzie said he would leverage previously unused legislation to settle the feud and enable all South Africans to watch their national teams.

The broadcasters have been in an ongoing battle over sports broadcasting rights, including live matches featuring the Springboks and the Proteas.

MultiChoice holds exclusive rights to broadcast such events.

“It is wrong. The national team doesn’t belong to MultiChoice or SABC or E-tv. None of them should act like the national team belongs to them,” said McKenzie.

“I’m not going to be an enabler of the majority of our people not being able to watch the national rugby team or soccer team.”

He described his words as a “friendly warning”, but said he was prepared to “go to war” with the broadcasters to enable poorer South Africans to watch these matches.

“There exists legislation which has never been used, that prevents them from engaging in the current action that they are engaging in,” said McKenzie.

“I intend to fully use that legislation. We are meeting with them. As we say we come in peace, but if they want war, they will get war.”

“I will make sure that South Africans can all watch,” he added.

MultiChoice’s SuperSport has exclusive broadcasting rights to a wide range of sports events, including those featuring national teams.

A major concern is that it effectively prevents poorer residents from viewing live matches in which national teams participate as full SuperSport access is limited to DStv Premium subscribers.

For reference, DStv’s satellite-based Premium package currently costs R929 per month, while the streaming-only subscription costs R799.

South Africa’s national rugby team, The Springboks, recently faced Ireland in a two-match inbound tour

The broadcasters have locked horns over the rights to air various live rugby and cricket matches featuring South Africa’s national teams.

Most recently, DStv owner MultiChoice rejected eMedia’s offer for the rights to broadcast the Springbok rugby test matches against Ireland on Openview.

It said eMedia’s offer was too low.

Curiously, its announcement came shortly after eMedia released a statement declaring the opposite.

“eMedia made a significant financial offer to MultiChoice to broadcast the Irish rugby Pretoria and Durban test matches, which MultiChoice inexplicably rejected,” it said.

Its statement came in response to the South African Rugby Union (Saru) pointing fingers at eMedia as the villain in the fiasco.

Saru’s accusation came after the SABC announced it would no longer air the matches.

The public broadcaster said the decision followed the recent urgent litigation at the Competition Appeal Court over the broadcast rights to test matches.

While it didn’t provide specifics on the legal matter, the SABC was likely referring to eMedia and MultiChoice’s fight over the sub-licensing of free-to-air sports broadcasting rights.

While hostilities between the two go back over a decade, the most recent battle kicked off following a complaint against MultiChoice from eMedia.

eMedia said MultiChoice only opened a tender for free-to-air broadcasters to bid for sub-licensing rights just over a month before the tournament started.

It added that bidders likely wouldn’t receive confirmation of broadcasting rights until less than two weeks before the event.

“eMedia views the issuing of these late invitations to tender by MultiChoice as undermining fair competition and ignoring a recent Competition Tribunal order designed to prevent such restrictive practices,” it said.

Similar conflicts erupted between the two broadcasters surrounding sub-licensing rights for the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2023 Cricket World Cup.