The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) recently aired the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup final between South Africa and India on Saturday, 29 June 2024. In a statement released that day, the public broadcaster said the game will be televised on SABC 2.
This comes after the SABC came to an agreement with MultiChoice’s SuperSport to broadcast the match.
“We are pleased that an agreement has been reached with the SABC,” said SuperSport CEO Rendani Ramovha. “The men’s national cricket team final against India today will be followed in July with the double defending Rugby World Cup champions, the Springboks, taking on Europe’s top side, Ireland, in two home tests.”
SABC Group CEO Nomsa Chabeli said its agreement with SuperSport is part of one of its initiatives to ensure citizens can participate in major historic country moments.
“We are thrilled that our audiences will be part of the Proteas’s momentous occasion during the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup final match,” said Chabeli.
“The SABC’s broadcast will start at 15:30 on SABC 2, and our radio stations will carry the updates.” She added that the SABC has secured the rights to broadcast the Springboks’ games against Ireland on July 6 and 13, 2024.
“This is a testament to our commitment to inclusivity and ensuring that our diverse audiences’ needs are catered for,” said Chabeli.
The last-minute joint announcement from the SABC and SuperSport is similar to what occurred with the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
In October 2023, the public broadcaster announced that it had reached a sub-licensing agreement with SuperSport to broadcast the tournament.
The announcement came two days after the public broadcaster and Multichoice said they had failed to agree on the tournament’s free-to-air broadcast rights.
MultiChoice said the SABC had rejected the pay-TV broadcaster’s latest proposal for a possible sub-license of broadcast rights to the 2023 CWC based on the proposed licence fee.
“This is notwithstanding MultiChoice offering the rights to the SABC on significantly reduced commercial terms, given its current circumstances,” it said.
“MultiChoice is disappointed at the rejection of its various proposals.”
However, in a statement late on Thursday, 5 October 2023, the SABC said it had reached an agreement with MultiChoice in subsequent negotiations.
The tournament began that same day.
It obtained the rights to broadcast all nine confirmed matches played by the Mens Proteas team, a semi-final, the final, and the closing ceremony.
A similar deal was struck between the SABC and SuperSport for sub-licencing rights to several 2023 Rugby World Cup matches, including all featuring the Springboks.
Like the Rugby World Cup sub-licencing agreement, the SABC could not broadcast the Cricket World Cup on its free-to-air channels on eMedia’s Openview satellite TV service.
“To mitigate the block out of the Cricket on Openview, the SABC approached eMedia to jointly acquire the Cricket World Cup 2023 rights from MultiChoice to ensure all eMedia Openview customers can view these games,” the SABC said.
