ALSO READ: MSNBC on TopTV won't carry 2012 Olympic Games coverage; will substitute with filler long format content.
The American 24 hour news channel, included on TopTV's bouquet in South Africa, is a 100% relay news channel with zero differentiation in the channel feed except for in-house MSNBC filler promos during advertisements.
While MultiChoice's SuperSport clinched the broadcasting rights for the 2012 Olympic Games for pay TV platform DStv and the SABC signed on as the free-to-air broadcaster for 2012 Olympic Games coverage which will be shown on SABC2, TopTV could suddenly be in for an unexpected sports boost thanks to a third-party TV channel sending its signal and channel feed from outside South Africa.
Last week during TopTV's first ever programming preview for May to July in Cape Town, the South African pay TV operator - when specifically asked whether TV channels on the TopTV bouquet will have or show 2012 Olympic Games coverage - TopTV said it wasn't aware of any and that "the rival operator has those rights and presumably the SABC will show some of the rest".
Now MSNBC will show 155,5 hours of 2012 Olympic Games coverage from 20 different sports from July - including soccer, basketball and wrestling. Kelly Tilghman will be MSNBC's Olympic Games presenter.
TopTV, long criticized for its lack of sport coverage and top-tier sports channels, told a gathering of journalists and TV writers at its press preview last week that the pay TV operator "continues to work on a sport strategy."
There is also another scenario: That NBCUniversal and MSNBCwho have the 2012 Olympic Games rights, will somehow have to black out any and all Olympic Games visuals on MSNBC similar to how CNBC Europe had to black out any 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games coverage from the channel's reporting and even from the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams two years ago.
In 2010 the amount of black silent air on live television on CNBC Africa and CNBC Europe with only a text scroll saying the broadcast doesn't have the rights became so much - due to the inclusion of Olympic Games coverage in news - that CNBC Europe dropped the NBC Nighly News with Brian Williams daily news bulletin entirely from the schedule.
Either TopTV viewers will see 155,5 hours of 2012 Olympic Games coverage on MSNBC two months from now, or TopTV will have a TV channel rendered basically a non-channel with 155,5 hours of silent black from two days before 23 July.
