As events unfold in Zimbabwe we realize that after Kwese TV’s entrance to the big stage which DStv had solely dominated for a very long time, DStv’s life line merely hangs upon its exclusive broadcasting rights to the popular English Premier League (EPL). In South Africa, MultiChoice subsidiary SuperSport’s monopoly on key sports rights like the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the English Premier League (EPL), the Springboks and Super Rugby matches and cricket – Proteas and the local tournaments is seriously now being challenged by the government and regulators and its end is inevitable. DStv is under intense regulatory scrutiny as the government looks to loosen its stranglehold on the sector, especially its exclusive hold on premium sports for its SuperSport channels. Needless to say DStv stuck their hand too deep into the cookie jar and were enjoying quite a lot of those cookies.
DStv has been in the industry for decades and in those years they have built strong relationships with rights owners as they have negotiated for massive sports contracts. Some of the contracts they signed with those rights owners were for long periods of time and exclusive contracts they were too.
On Tuesday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions announced that it plans to picket Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.
The trade federation claimed that the primary reason for their protest was DStv’s monopoly over national rugby broadcasting rights in the country, and the lack of freely accessible games broadcast by the SABC.
As it stands, only those with DStv subscriptions and access to SuperSport are able to watch Springbok matches live.
The federation also called for the firing of SuperSport pundits, Naas Botha and Nick Mallett.
Cosatu statement:
“National sports that must inspire the whole nation must be shown live on SABC, as it is a national sport of all the people.”
“This kind of discrimination will never be allowed in a national soccer match, as the government would step in to ensure it is available live for all citizens.
“This sport has been denied the majority of children in schools because of (the South African Rugby Union) SARU’s bad development programmes and the ministry allows them to get away with it.
“The commentators like Naas Botha and Nick Mallett are outdated and should be replaced. Nick Mallett also has a habit of promoting white players and talking black players down, because he suits the Stellenbosch mafia’s agenda. Mallett should be removed for this racism and clear unbiased reporting of the game.”
Cricket South Africa
The issue of broadcasting rights was also a serious point of contention in the cricketing world this past week, following reports that Cricket South Africa (CSA) head, Haroon Lorgat, had been sacked over repeated failings to negotiate a broadcasting contract ahead of the upcoming Global T20 League.
The rights negotiations between the two parties had become so strained that SuperSport representatives walked out of a meeting.
The dispute arose around whether SuperSport was entitled to the Global T20 League broadcasting rights under its current agreement, which it claimed was an “all-rights” deal.
With Lorgat now gone, on Wednesday there were some reports that at least some portion of the Global T20 League will be shown on free-to-air television.
Cricket SA’s acting chief executive, Thabang Moroe, said the details of what would be shown on free-to-air television channels, were still being finalised.
“I can’t say yet whether it will be just highlights or if there’ll be a couple of live matches, we are still discussing that,” he said.
“We haven’t even needed to make SuperSport aware of the importance of the tournament being on free-to-air television, they understood that already.”
The exact size of the financial package is also still being discussed.
“It’s been very challenging, we basically had to start negotiations (regarding the broadcast deal for the GLT20) afresh,” Moroe said.
Forced changes
While DStv is unlikely to feel the effects of Cosatu protests and the loss of some cricket matches to the SABC, it has also been placed squarely in the firing line of government and regulators.
In August, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced that it would be starting an inquiry into subscription-based television broadcasting services.
The objective of the inquiry is ultimately to determine whether there are competition issues in the sector and whether Icasa needs to step in and impose new pro-competition conditions.
Some of the issues that Icasa plans to look at include:
- Shortening exclusive contracts – meaning sports can no longer be tied down to SuperSport through contactual obligations for long periods of time.
- “Unbundling” sports rights so that they are accessible to more than one buyer.
- Similar to the unbundling sports rights, Icasa proposes that a rights owner split their content rights and sell them to more than one broadcaster.
- Similar to the case of Sky in the UK, Icasa proposes introducing a wholesale-must-offer on sports channels, which requires an operator to sell sporting content to other distributors at regulated prices.
DStv may be the go to broadcaster for premium sport content but that position is being challenged every day and with new entrants in the market like Kwese TV, five years down the line we might have a picture totally different from the one we have right now.
For football lovers, Supersport might not be the go to service in the future, Facebook and Amazon are set to join in the fight for English Premier League rights and also the Champions League. Facebook’s head of sports refused to rule out a bid for EPL rights. Kwese will be in the mix too and as the next set of rights are set to be auctioned next year so we will see what happens then.
