eMedia and MultiChoice settle legal disputes

eMedia has said that its legal disputes with MultiChoice were settled in September.

This was stated in eMedia’s interim results, which were released on Monday.

“The issues between the parties have been satisfactorily resolved by agreement, which brings to an end to the legal proceedings between MultiChoice and eMedia,” eMedia legal executive Philippa Rafferty told MyBroadband.

MultiChoice told MyBroadband that while the settlement terms are confidential, the litigation “has been settled amicably between the two parties.”

The legal battles had become a heavy financial burden for eMedia.

The free-to-air broadcaster reported in its annual financial results for the year ending 31 March 2024 that “legal battles with MultiChoice increased legal costs by R8.8 million.”

While the two have been at odds for over a decade, the conflict referred to above stemmed from two incidents.

The first was when MultiChoice dropped four of eMedia’s channels — eExtra, eMovies, eMovies Extra, and eToonz — following a Competition Tribunal hearing in 2022.

The Tribunal ruled against eMedia’s appeal to keep the channels on the DStv platform.

eMedia later secured a Competition Tribunal interdict, forcing MultiChoice to restore the channels. The Tribunal extended the interdict for six months in December 2023.

Backtrack a few months to the 2023 Rugby World Cup to when MultiChoice’s SuperSport and the SABC reached a last-minute agreement reportedly worth R57 million to broadcast sixteen matches live, including every Springbok game.

Part of the sub-licensing deal restricted the SABC from broadcasting the content on any third-party platforms it didn’t own, including eMedia’s Openview.

Openview is a free-to-view satellite TV service that offers South Africans various channels as an alternative to MultiChoice’s pay-TV product, DStv.

However, the rugby was available on all other platforms in South Africa, including StarSat and digital terrestrial television.

This caused even further conflict and added to eMedia’s legal bill as the free-to-air broadcaster took MultiChoice to court.

The SABC seemed to side with eMedia, calling the restriction “anti-competitive” and “irrational”.

Despite this, the state broadcaster struck a similar deal with MultiChoice for the Cricket World Cup rights later that year.

However, the DStv owner hit back, saying eMedia wanted a free ride without trying to secure its own sports broadcasting rights or sub-licence the exclusive rights it paid top dollar for.

It argued that such broadcasting rights could drop by more than 80% when sold on a non-exclusive basis.

MultiChoice believes selling exclusive broadcasting rights in South Africa to maximise revenue is crucial for the country’s sports development.

“Selling rights exclusively maximises the income to sports bodies, and without this income, sport in SA cannot be sustainable,” MultiChoice recently told MyBroadband.

The High Court ultimately did not rule on the case’s merits but ordered it struck off the roll on procedural grounds.

eMedia kept fighting, taking the pay-TV operator to the Competition Commission. However, it dropped the case after a few days.

Six months later, the Competition Tribunal awarded an interdict in eMedia’s favour, blocking MultiChoice and the SABC from including or enforcing restrictions in sub-licensing agreements prohibiting the public broadcaster from airing sports on Openview.

SABC caught in the middle

Soon afterwards, the SABC announced it would no longer broadcast the Springboks’ matches against Ireland in South Africa on 6 July and 12 July 2024.

It said the decision followed litigation at the Competiton Appeal Court over the broadcast rights to test matches.

While it did not specifically name the legal matter in question, the SABC was likely referring to the eMedia and MultiChoice case over the sub-licensing of free-to-air sports broadcasting rights.

As a result, sports, arts, and culture minister Gayton Mckenzie said he is prepared to “go to war” against the broadcasters if they cannot reach a resolution that would allow all South Africans to watch their national sports teams.

The minister eventually reached an agreement with MultiChoice and the SABC that allowed the first test match between the Springboks and All Blacks on 31 August 2024 to be broadcast to all South Africans for free.

While no such arrangement has occurred since then, communications minister Solly Malatsi said his department is working on an Audio and Audio-Visual White Paper to determine which sporting events featuring national teams should be free in South Africa.

Mckenzie has also stated that government must step up and help foot the bill for the SABC’s sub-licensing rights, as MultiChoice cannot be expected to take a loss every time South Africa’s national teams play.