The SABC's live coverage of the Cricket World Cup 2019 on television is over and done after it had barely begun, with no further live broadcast of TV matches.
The South African public broadcaster confirmed that viewers and listeners of the SABC's TV and radio will still get some delayed broadcasts of matches - some done the day after - and radio coverage, as well as highlight summaries.
Neither the semi-finals nor the Cricket World Cup 2019 final will be broadcast on SABC television.
On 27 May the SABC and SuperSport in a joint announcement said that they have "concluded an agreement for the SABC to broadcast the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup" and that it followed "extensive negotiations between the parties".
The SABC and the MultiChoice Group said at the time that some of the cricket matches would be live broadcasts, some would be delayed broadcasts, and some would be highlight packages.
The SABC didn't announce the details regarding which matches it would broadcast live but it now turns out that it was only for the first two World Cup matches of South Africa against England and South Africa against Bangladesh.
In a schedule the SABC posted on social media, the SABC's SABC Sport division outlined and confirmed that viewers won't be seeing anything else of the Cricket World Cup 2019 live on SABC television.
Meanwhile all matches of the South African national cricket team are shown to all DStv subscribers for the duration of the tournament.
Only three of South Africa's remaining 6 round-robin matches will be broadcast and only on the evening of the match. Two matches will be broadcast only the day after. The match between South Africa and Sri Lanka will only be on SABC radio.
While the live radio rights to all 48 matches have been given to the SABC to broadcast, the South African public broadcaster will only broadcast 18 live, while the rest will all be reports.
Neither the semi-finals nor the Cricket World Cup 2019 final will be broadcast on SABC television.
The cash-strapped SABC says that it can't afford to pay for sports rights like the Cricket World Cup with the pricing that has become unsustainable and with the SABC making little or no money and even losing money when broadcasting sports, including sports of national interest.
