Gayton McKenzie promises DStv sports deal

South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie has promised that his department is working on a deal to allow South Africans to watch the Springboks vs All Blacks rugby match this coming weekend without a DStv subscription.

This comes after a back-and-forth exchange on social media where some commenters accused McKenzie of lying when SuperSport issued a seemingly contradictory statement.

“I’ve got very good news… I met with SuperSport and I am happy to tell you that you will be able to watch the Springboks and New Zealand game, even if you do not have a decoder,” Newzroom Afrika quoted the minister as saying on Friday afternoon.

However, SuperSport issued a statement six hours later saying there was no deal yet.

“Contrary to news reports, at this stage, SuperSport has not concluded agreements with any broadcaster for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches, including the Springboks–All Blacks matches,” the sports channel operator said.

Following SuperSport’s evening statement, Twitter/X was awash with comments accusing the Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture of lying.

McKenzie responded on Saturday, saying that SuperSport had made it clear how much the SABC needed to pay to make a deal happen and that he was working on a solution.

“Nobody lied here,” McKenzie said.

“We know the terms and expectations from the rightsholder for us to make this available, and we intend to fully meet those expectations in the interest of the nation. This is not a normal game, this is the anniversary of the most important rugby game. Let’s talk in a week.”

McKenzie clarified that government would not expect SuperSport to give the SABC the matches for free.

“I have been clear that it will be unfair of government to expect SuperSport to show matches for free, matches that they have paid for, it is our task to make sure that we as government play our part in making sure our people also get to watch their national teams,” he said.

The latest exchange follows an incident last month where the minister had some stern words for DStv and other broadcasters, which he later walked back.

McKenzie issued a “friendly warning” to broadcasters, saying it was wrong that just one could decide who has access to events featuring the country’s national teams.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

If the broadcasters didn’t find their own solution, McKenzie said he would use already-existing legislation to force them to allow more South Africans to be able to watch their national sports teams.

“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,” McKenzie vowed.

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

However, following meetings with broadcasters early in August, McKenzie’s rhetoric softened.

“We had a very progressive meeting at MultiChoice Group. I thanked them for the billions they pour into sports, arts, and culture,” the minister said in a post on Twitter.

“We spoke about solutions regarding the problems of access to main matches by most South Africans and I left the meeting highly impressed. The future is indeed bright.”

eMedia and the SABC have been battling MultiChoice’s sports rights exclusivity, including live matches featuring South Africa’s national rugby and cricket teams.

The fight centres around restrictions MultiChoice placed on the rights it sub-licenced to the SABC.

Under the terms of their most recent deals, the SABC was not allowed to broadcast Springboks and Proteas matches to its channels on eMedia’s Openview platform during their respective World Cups.

When eMedia and the SABC cried foul, MultiChoice explained that without the restriction, the sub-licence would have been more expensive.

eMedia took the matter to the Competition Tribunal on the grounds that it was anti-competitive, which granted an interdict blocking MultiChoice and the SABC from enforcing or abiding by agreements that included this restriction.

By the time the interdict was granted, the Rugby and Cricket World Cup tournaments were already finished.

However, when Ireland played the Springboks in a recent test series, the SABC announced at the last minute that it would no longer be able to broadcast the matches.

The South African Rugby Union (Saru) issued a statement casting eMedia as the villain in the story.

Saru said eMedia wanted a free ride, while MultiChoice provided substantial financial support to South Africa’s sporting teams.

eMedia took issue with this, saying it made a significant financial offer to MultiChoice to broadcast the Ireland test matches in Pretoria and Durban, which MultiChoice rejected.

It also complained that MultiChoice had only opened a tender for free-to-air broadcasters to bid for sub-licensing rights a little over a month before the tournament commenced.

The broadcaster said the late posting of the tender meant bidders likely wouldn’t receive confirmation until less than two weeks before kick off.

“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.

However, MultiChoice issued a statement shortly afterwards saying it had rejected eMedia’s offer because it was too low.