The SABC just told me that the South African public broadcaster WILL air the African Cup of Nations from tomorrow. The first match between Angola and Mali will be broadcast on SABC1 from 21:00.
The SABC will show all of the soccer matches, but not all of them will be broadcast live.
''We're going to show all of the games,'' SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago just told me, ''but not all of them will be live. Half of them will be live and the rest will be delayed.''
He told me that the SABC secured the deal to broadcast Africa's biggest soccer show late on Friday evening.
This follows after the SABC sent a delegation to France to try and secure the broadcasting rights for South Africa from SportFive. This new last-minute agreement follows an acrimonious to-and-from between the SABC and SportFive regarding previous agreements worth R1 billion that was signed in 2008 between the two for sport broadcasting rights. Later the SABC backed out of the deal that it claimed the broadcaster entered into ''illegally''.
A high ranking insider source within the SABC told me yesterday that as a precursor to the 2010 Soccer World Cup and the broadcaster's perceived ability to successfully show that tournament later in the year, that it was ''imperative'' to get the rights for the African Cup of Nations. ''There is no way that the SABC is not going to show the African Cup of Nations,'' the source told me. ''Not being able to show the African Cup of Nations before the World Cup would not look good and be an additional embarrasement that the broadcaster cannot afford''.
