by Thinus Ferreira
eMedia has suddenly dropped its Openview TV sport rights case it brought against MultiChoice and SuperSport and will now pay MultiChoice's court costs.
Last week eMedia lost in court when the Gauteng High Court scrapped its urgent application from the roll after eMedia took MultiChoice and SuperSport to court demanding that its Openview satellite service get access to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
eMedia told MultiChoice it's withdrawing its court case and will pay "the wasted costs of the respondents", in this case MultiChoice.
eMedia didn't approach the Rugby World Cup organisers in Dublin, Ireland directly in 2018 when the rights became available for sale like SuperSport which bought the rights five years ago, and didn't approach SuperSport for a sublicensing agreement like the SABC which did sublicense the right last month from SuperSport to show 16 matches.
eMedia argued that since it carries SABC2 which shows the 2023 Rugby World Cup Matches it should get the content for free since there shouldn't be one version of SABC2 as a digital terrestrial television (DTT) TV channel and on DStv and StarSat showing matches, and a SABC2 version for Openview showing filler content.
MultiChoice South Africa CEO Marc Jury slammed eMedia's case as a "classic example of free-riding" and accused the Hyde Park-based broadcaster of trying to profit from content it didn't pay for.
After abandoning its high court case and now having to pay costs, eMedia has now again lodged a case with the Competition Commission where another case of e.tv against MultiChoice is winding its way through the system after MultiChoice over a year ago decided it no longer wanted to carry the set of e.tv-packaged TV channels on DStv.
eMedia's second case at the Competition Commission now centres around MultiChoice's sport rights acquisition process and allegations that it locks out other broadcasters like e.tv through imposed restrictions. The SABC has lodged a similar long-winding complaint with the Competition Commission which is still being heard.
"Almost immediately after filing an application before the Competition Tribunal, eMedia has now formally abandoned its high court litigation and will have to pay MultiChoice's legal costs," MultiChoice told TVwithThinus in a statement after eMedia withdrew its court case.
"This confirms our view that eMedia litigation was entirely without merit," the Randburg-based pay-TV operator said.
MultiChoice said "This is the third attempt by eMedia to launch urgent proceedings in the last two weeks with the first two attempts being rightly rejected by the High Court. eMedia decided not to acquire the broadcasting rights in any form. It cannot now use the judicial system to free-ride on the investments made by MultiChoice. MultiChoice considers the latest application to be entirely without merit and will oppose it vigorously."
In response to a media query, Philippa Rafferty, eMedia group executive for legal and business affairs said "Due to the court striking the matter from the roll for urgency, we have decided to withdraw the high court matter for now while we proceed with our complaint to the Competition Commission and application to the Competition Tribunal for interim relief".
"We will reconsider the high court matter in due time. We are still confident of the merits of the case."
