At this very moment there is no signed contract at the SABC to get the live feed and broadcast the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April, although sources told TV with Thinus this morning that ''there's 99% certainty that SABC3 will get it too''.
ALSO READ: e.tv gets the broadcasting rights for the Royal Wedding for South Africa; will show it live on 29 April.
ALSO READ: BBC World News will show the Royal Wedding live on 29 April.
ALSO READ: BBC Knowledge to broadcast the Royal Wedding on 29 April that Britains will see on BBC One.
The SABC has been very slow out of the blocks starting, concluding and getting a broadcast deal done, and has now been overshadowed by BBC World News (TopTV 400 / DStv 400), BBC Knowledge (DStv 251) and e.tv who all secured the Royal Wedding broadcast for South African viewers.
Sources are telling me that SABC3 already prepared special TV promos for the event to make viewers aware and lure them to the public broadcaster's commercial channel. Sadly and ironically these can't run since no contract has been signed to broadcast the Royal Wedding.
After it was decided that SABC3 will be the SABC channel also showing the Royal Wedding, space has been allocated on the programming schedule on 29 April, but neither the SABC or SABC3 can yet confirm that it has the Royal Wedding broadcast since no contract has been signed. SABC3 has allocated and already cleared the whole schedule for 29 April from the time period of 09:30 to 14:30 on the day for the broadcast, but has nothing to put in there.
On Saturday 30 April at 16:45 until 19:00 SABC3 also cleared the schedule for The Royal Wedding Special, a special recap programme of the Friday's events, which of course also don't exist because of the unsigned contract.
''The problem now is that with less than 3 weeks left, every day that passes SABC3 loses out on making people aware that it too will have the Royal Wedding broadcast,'' says a source. ''Viewers who might have watched it on SABC3 are going to tune in to other channels already marketing this event and running promos and adverts for it.'' Another SABC insider says ''there's 99% certainty that SABC3 will get it too, but nothing can be done before the broadcast agreement isn't completely signed and done.''
TV with Thinus has also asked the SABC numerous times over weeks and constantly keeps asking who - if any - the SABC News journalists would be who would possibly be covering the Royal Wedding in London. Since the first media enquiry the SABC has yet to respond.
