MultiChoice sorry for R19.95 Rugby World Cup DStv billing mistake.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is apologising for billing chaos around its R19.95 access offer to watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup final that angered DStv subscribers, with the pay-TV operator saying customers who suddenly got saddled with big bills won't be expected to pay more.

Last week Friday MultiChoice suddenly started to advertise a R19.95 once-off offer for customers to watch Saturday's final between the Springboks and New Zealand on DStv on the DStv Access streaming package.

The R19.95 price point was a play on the year 1995 when South Africa first won the Rugby World Cup.

From a marketing perspective MultiChoice leveraged the high interest in Saturday night's sports content from SuperSport as a DStv driver for sampling, event TV ratings, customer retention and possible new subscription adds.

A problem arose shortly after Saturday night at midnight - with the Rugby World Cup final match which ended just before midnight - when DStv Access sampler sign-ups who made use of the R19.95 to watch the game, cancelled or tried to cancel their one-day sign-up again.

They suddenly discovered they now owed and had an outstanding balance of -R175 instead of owing nothing. It's unclear where the R175 billing came from since DStv Access costs R99 per month.

Multiple complaints started on social media like X, formerly branded as Twitter, with people upset with DStv, and nothing that they're suddenly required to cancel with 30-days notice to MultiChoice and are saddled with negative balances.

People like Kayla shared screenshots of their DStv accounts, saying "I was celebrating now I'm crying. I signed up for R19.95 and now you want me to pay R175.50." People also said that DStv's customer support channels and call centre operators were unhelpful to resolve the billing mistake.

On Monday night MultiChoice told TVwithThinus the Randburg-based pay-TV operator apologises for the billing mistake, that it will be corrected soon and that nobody who made use of the R19.95 will be expected to pay more.

"MultiChoice would like to assure customers who signed up for the R19.95 Rugby World Cup deal that they will continue to enjoy their subscription to DStv Access (including an additional mobile Extra Stream) for a full month from their date of subscription for R19.95."

"Should customers choose to extend their subscription, they will be billed at R99 per month from the second month onwards."

"MultiChoice acknowledges and apologises for an error in customers' calculated amount on their statements. This will be corrected shortly. MultiChoice remains committed to bringing our customers the very best in sports and entertainment."

MultiChoice said that people who are having problems with the R19.95 offer can use the email address of RWC_Queries@DStv.com for help.

eMedia takes sports rights fight with MultiChoice to Competition Commission.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia, already embroiled in a e.tv channels carriage fight with MultiChoice at the Competition Commission, has now also lodged a new case with the commission in its ongoing TV sports rights fight with the pay-TV operator.

eMedia's new Competition Commission case comes after the Gauteng High Court last week scrapped eMedia's urgent application from the roll after eMedia demanded to show the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches for free through the SABC TV channels it carries on its Openview satellite TV service.

With the help of sponsors, the SABC paid R57 million to MultiChoice to sublicence 16 matches of the 2023 Rugby World Cup from SuperSport. 

MultiChoice and SuperSport in its sublicensing agreement, blocks the SABC from showing these 16 matches on the version of SABC2 carried on eMedia's Openview.

Neither the SABC nor eMedia and Openview made any bid for the direct TV sports rights in 2018 for the 2023 Rugby World Cup from the primary rights holder, RWCL in Dublin, Ireland. That forced the SABC last month to acquire the rights from SuperSport through a sublicensing contract.

eMedia argues that there shouldn't be a "SABC2"-version from the SABC that is free-to-air on digital terrestrial television (DTT), SABC+, on DStv and StarSat, and then a separate "SABC2"-version just for Openview that shows filler content when the "real" SABC2" shows Rugby World Cup matches.

Marc Jury, MultiChoice South Africa CEO, slammed eMedia last week, saying eMedia is involved in a "classic case of free-riding" and that "eMedia wants to broadcast the matches to their Openview customers without paying a cent to do so". 

After its urgent court application was tossed last week, eMedia on Tuesday announced that "We have lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission and we have filed papers before the Competition Tribunal in respect of the provision in the sublicensing agreements concluded between MultiChoice and the SABC that prevent the SABC from utilising third-party platforms to transmit SABC channels that broadcast national sporting events".

eMedia says "MultiChoice’s conduct in this regard is particularly shocking because it has sublicensed these rights to the SABC, and accordingly, the SABC should not be prevented from utilising whichever platforms it selects to broadcast programming to the broader public".

"We believe that it is in the national interest that these issues are dealt with as soon as possible and that there are no undue delays in the merits of these matters being ventilated fully."

"National sporting events are part of our nation-building process, and accordingly, MultiChoice’s tactics and behaviour which are simply designed to entrench its dominant position in the television broadcasting sector in South Africa at the expense of the broader public in order to harm its competitors should not be countenanced."

In another long-delayed and yet somewhat similar case before the Competition Commission, the SABC had also taken MultiChoice to the commission alleging anti-competitive behaviour by SuperSport when it comes to the acquisition of sports rights and the sublicensing of sports rights.

This means that both the SABC and e.tv now have cases at the Competition Commission against MultiChoice and SpuerSport in regards to the licensing of TV sports rights in South Africa.

An in another drawn-out case before the Competition Commission, e.tv is fighting to keep its other e.tv channel packaged TV channels on MultiChoice's DStv, after MultiChoice said it no longer wants the eExtra, eToonz, eMovies or eMovies Extra channels on its platform after channel carriage extension negotiations broke down.

These e.tv channels remain on DStv after yet another extension that was granted by the Competition Tribunal, while the body must still decide "whether a further extension of interim relief can be legally justified".

This means that e.tv now has two cases at the Competition Commission against MultiChoice - one about general entertainment TV channel carriage, and one over sports rights sublicensing agreements for public television.

ALSO READ: Court sides with MultiChoice in 'free-riding' e.tv TV rights fight over 2023 Rugby World Cup.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice slams Openview over 2023 Rugby World Cup TV rights legal action: 'A classic example of free-riding'.

ALSO READ: e.tv takes SuperSport to court over SABC's sublicensed Rugby World Cup TV rights.

ALSO READ: eMedia's e.tv channels to stay on MultiChoice's DStv for another few months after latest Competition Appeal Court decision.

Court sides with MultiChoice in 'free-riding' e.tv TV rights fight over 2023 Rugby World Cup.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice won on Tuesday afternoon after the court tossed eMedia's Openview case against SuperSport over the 2023 Rugby World Cup TV rights that MultiChoice described as "a classic example of free-riding".

The High Court of South Africa's Gauteng division in Johannesburg on Tuesday struck eMedia's urgent application against MultiChoice and SuperSport off the roll, which means that MultiChoice emerged victorious in the latest sports rights TV fight between Randburg and Hyde Park.

The Randburg-based pay-TV operator and the SABC were dragged to court by eMedia for blocking Openview from showing 2023 Rugby World Cup matches seen on SuperSport and SABC2 and for which Openview hasn't paid for.

After the SABC paid R57 million to sublicence 16 of the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches from SuperSport, viewers of SABC2 on Openview get filler content during matches, while viewers of the SABC2 channel carried on DStv and StarSat, as well as on SABC+ see the Rugby World Cup matches.

eMedia and Openview didn't pay for the Rugby World Cup matches and didn't license and pay for any content from the Rugby World Cup organisers.

eMedia also didn't sublicence content from SuperSport but argued that what is shown on any SABC channels should be available, and the same, anywhere, irrespective of the platform the SABC's channels are on. 

In its answering affidavit to eMedia's urgent application before the High Court, Marc Jury, MultiChoice SA CEO, said that Openview now wants to show 2023 Rugby World Cup matches for free "at no cost to itself despite the fact that it could have participated in the process of securing a licence for those rights from World Cup Rugby directly but never did so".

"After SuperSport had acquired the licence from RWCL in Dublin, Ireland, SuperSport entered into a sublicensing agreement with the SABC to allow for Springboks and other matches to be broadcast on the SABC."

"SuperSport and the SABC agreed that the SABC could exploit the rights on its own owed and operated platforms but it would not be permitted to make available the licensed matches on any third party-owned or operated platform," Marc Jury explains.

"This meant that the SABC is not permitted to make the matches available for broadcast on third-party platforms like Openview. eMedia wants to broadcast the matches to their Openview customers without paying a cent to do so".

'Classic example of free-riding'

Marc Jury argued that eMedia and Openview "were well within their rights to engage in the competitive process to acquire a licence from World Rugby to broadcast the Rugby World Cup 2023 matches. They elected not to do so." 

While SuperSport already started the process in 2018 and acquired the rights in mid-2018 for 2023's Rugby World Cup "eMedia's case is a classic example of free-riding - seeking to profit off another's expense without contributing at all," Jury noted.

SABC got it even cheaper

Marc Jury says that "if it were not for SuperSport being willing to pay the substantial price it did for the rights, no-one in South Africa would be able to view Rugby World Cup matches at all".

"It has therefore been SuperSport who has advanced, rather than undermined or infringed, the South African public's interest in watching the matches. The SABC has also itself spent money to acquire the sublicensed Rugby World Cup matches in stark contract to eMedia which seeks to transmit those matches for free."

Marc Jury explained that the SABC got the 2023 Rugby World Cup sublicensing rights from SuperSport at R57 million at a much cheaper price than it did before.

"The amount paid by the SABC under the sublicence agreement was far below market value for the rights" he notes and says it's also "far below the amounts paid by the SABC for the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup".

"SuperSport elected to accept this amount with considerable concern and at economic cost to itself but did so mindful of the SABC's financial position in order to promote the free-to-air coverage on the public broadcasting service."

"A broadcaster having a genuine interest in broadcasting valuable rights would plan well in advance of the events in question and seek, on a commercial basis, to acquire those rights on a licensing or sublicensing basis. These are steps that eMedia has simply failed to take," Jury noted.

eMedia ordered to pay legal fees

The court on Tuesday stuck the urgent application from the roll. 

"Today the Johannesburg High Court struck from the roll a case brought by eMedia against MultiChoice, SuperSport and SABC regarding the 2023 Rugby World Cup," MultiChoice says in a statement released after the hearing.

"The High Court further directed eMedia to pay the costs of MultiChoice and SuperSport, including the costs of three counsel. The effect of the High Court’s decision is that the position remains that the Springbok matches at the Rugby World Cup will continue to be broadcast only on SuperSport and the SABC," MultiChoice noted.

"The matches are not broadcast via Openview because eMedia has at no stage purchased or even attempted to purchase the rights concerned. MultiChoice and SuperSport welcome this development."

"As MultiChoice SA CEO Marc Jury explained in his affidavit before the High Court eMedia's case is a classic example of free-riding - seeking to profit off another's expense without contributing at all."

ALSO READ: e.tv takes SuperSport to court over SABC's sublicensed Rugby World Cup TV rights.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice slams Openview over 2023 Rugby World Cup TV rights legal action: 'A classic example of free-riding'.

MultiChoice slams Openview over 2023 Rugby World Cup TV rights legal action: 'A classic example of free-riding'.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is slamming eMedia's Openview as "a classic example of free-riding" after the Randburg-based pay-TV operator and the SABC have been dragged to court blocking Openview from showing 2023 Rugby World Cup matches on SuperSport and SABC2 and which Openview hasn't paid for.

After the SABC paid R57 million to sublicence 16 of the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches from SuperSport, viewers of SABC2 on Openview get filler content during matches, while viewers of the SABC2 channel carried on DStv and StarSat, as well as on SABC+ see the Rugby World Cup matches.

eMedia and Openview didn't pay for the Rugby World Cup matches and didn't license and pay for any content from the Rugby World Cup organisers.

eMedia also didn't sublicence content from SuperSport but argues that what is shown on any SABC channels should be available, and the same, anywhere, irrespective of the platform the SABC's channels are on. 

eMedia and Openview decided to take MultiChoice to court.

In its answering affidavit to eMedia's urgent application before the High Court of South Africa's Gauteng division in Johannesburg, Marc Jury, MultiChoice SA CEO, says that Openview now wants to show 2023 Rugby World Cup matches for free "at no cost to itself despite the fact that it could have participated in the process of securing a licence for those rights from World Cup Rugby directly but never did so".

"After SuperSport had acquired the licence from RWCL in Dublin, Ireland, SuperSport entered into a sublicensing agreement with the SABC to allow for Springboks and other matches to be broadcast on the SABC."

"SuperSport and the SABC agreed that the SABC could exploit the rights on its own owed and operated platforms but it would not be permitted to make available the licensed matches on any third party-owned or operated platform," Marc Jury explains.

"This meant that the SABC is not permitted to make the matches available for broadcast on third-party platforms like Openview. eMedia wants to broadcast the matches to their Openview customers without paying a cent to do so".

'Classic example of free-riding'

Marc Jury says eMedia and Openview "were well within their rights to engage in the competitive process to acquire a licence from World Rugby to broadcast the Rugby World Cup 2023 matches. They elected not to do so. 

While SuperSport already started the process in 2018 and acquired the rights in mid-2018 for 2023's Rugby World Cup "eMedia's case is a classic example of free-riding - seeking to profit off another's expense without contributing at all," Jury argues.

He says eMedia and Openview are wrong in claiming that 3.2 million TV households are unable to watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches.

"The viewership of the SABC channels on Openview is a far cry from the 3.2 million households with Openview set-top boxes, let alone the claimed 10 million viewers. Further, the viewership of SABC2 is smaller at a mere 61 605 and SABC Sport even smaller at 18 144 as at 31 March 2023."

Jury says that the irony is that "if eMedia's application were to succeed, it would actually result in far fewer South Africans watching the remaining matches of the Rugby World Cup 2023 than has been the case for the past Springbok games".

"That is because if, contrary to everything that has been set out above, this court were to conclude that the restriction in the sublicence with the SABC is unenforceable and invalid, then the entire sublicence between SuperSport and the SABC would fail because the restriction cannot be severed from the remainder of the sublicence."

"The result will be that there will be no free-to-air broadcast of the remaining Rugby World Cup matches."

According to Jury, "this will be a sorry day for rugby in South Africa but the result will lie squarely at the feet of eMedia".

SABC got it even cheaper

Marc Jury says that "if it were not for SuperSport being willing to pay the substantial price it did for the rights, no-one in South Africa would be able to view Rugby World Cup matches at all".

"It has therefore been SuperSport who has advanced, rather than undermined or infringed, the South African public's interest in watching the matches. The SABC has also itself spent money to acquire the sublicensed Rugby World Cup matches in stark contract to eMedia which seeks to transmit those matches for free."

Jury explains that the SABC got the 2023 Rugby World Cup sublicensing rights from SuperSport at R57 million at a much cheaper price than it did before.

"The amount paid by the SABC under the sublicence agreement was far below market value for the rights" he notes and says it's also "far below the amounts paid by the SABC for the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup".

"SuperSport elected to accept this amount with considerable concern and at economic cost to itself but did so mindful of the SABC's financial position in order to promote the free-to-air coverage on the public broadcasting service."

"A broadcaster having a genuine interest in broadcasting valuable rights would plan well in advance of the events in question and seek, on a commercial basis, to acquire those rights on a licensing or sublicensing basis. These are steps that eMedia has simply failed to take," Jury notes. 

The hearing for eMedia's urgent application is scheduled for Tuesday 10 October. 

ALSO READ: e.tv takes SuperSport to court over SABC's sublicensed Rugby World Cup TV rights.

e.tv takes SuperSport to court over SABC's sublicensed Rugby World Cup TV rights.

by Thinus Ferreira

A court scrum is coming with eMedia Holdings, parent company of e.tv, which is taking SuperSport to court over the inability of its Openview service to show the 2023 Rugby World Cup free on its satellite TV service, after the SABC acquired the sublicensing rights for R57 million.

While MultiChoice and SuperSport years ago acquired the licensing rights for the current 2023 Rugby World shown on SuperSport channels to DStv subscribers, the SABC - with days to spare - last month paid R57 million to SuperSport to acquire the sublicensing rights to show 16 matches of the 48 matches on its SABC TV channels.

While MultiChoice and SuperSport have its own Rugby World Cup sponsors, the SABC - which made another annual loss of R1.13 billion and doesn't have money to pay for the rights - managed to cobble together its own sponsors at short notice like South African Breweries (SAB), Hollywoodbets and insurer Pineapple, to pony up the R57 million to sublicence the sports rights.

The SABC TV channels which are available freely, are also carried on the satellite TV services of MultiChoice's DStv, StarTimes Media SA's StarSat, as well as eMedia's Openview.

The issue is this: MultiChoice is preventing the SABC from showing the Rugby World Cup matches it had acquired from SuperSport, on the versions of the SABC's TV channels carried on Openview.

While SABC2 on DStv will, for instance, show the Rugby World Cup match between the Springboks and Tonga, the SABC is forced to substitute it with other filler programming for the version of SABC2 shown on Openview, since Openview is a direct competitor to MultiChoice.

MultiChoice argues that it doesn't want content that it had to bid and pay for to be available for free - especially not on a competing satellite TV service. 

eMedia argues that the SABC is a public broadcaster and that content on its TV channels should be the same everywhere and be accessible as widely as possible and to all South Africans irrespective of the distribution platform.

After threatening to do so in two acrimonious letters sent last month to MultiChoice that eMedia also made public and gave to the media, eMedia has now lodged papers in the high court and has announced its decision to sue MultiChoice and SuperSport.

eMedia paid for three expensive black-and-white full-page ads in the Sunday Times, Rapport and City Press newspapers respectively. 

In the form of a poem, eMedia in the full-page ad published in Sunday, states that "The court is engaged, the court will decide if digitally migrated Openview homes will get to the Rugby World Cup. The court will decide if Openview homes, who must pay TV licences, get to see the Rugby World Cup on SABC2".

Khalik Sherrif, eMedia CEO, in a statement said "The anticompetitive action is nothing short of domination in trying to prescribe to the free-to-air partner on how to use its broadcasting rights".

"We believe the action should be strongly condemned and opposed. The 3.2 million households which have been affected by the decision should voice their dissatisfaction."

MultiChoice told TVwithThinus in a statement "We are in receipt of the application served on us by eMedia. We consider the application to be without merit and have notified eMedia of our intention to oppose it".

Satellite TV cold war

The frosty relationship between the Hyde Park-based eMedia and the Randburg-based MultiChoice steadily soured over the past decade as it steadily built to an all-out TV war.

The relationship between eMedia and MultiChoice frayed due to eMedia's own growing multi-channel content aspirations which led to its creation of Openview, as well as increasingly contentious channel carriage renewal deals for the eNCA (DStv 403) TV news channel and later other e.tv-packaged TV channels offered to DStv.

In a drawn-out case at the Competition Commission, e.tv's additional TV channels remain available on MultiChoice's DStv which the pay-TV operator wanted to axe at the end of March 2022.

MultiChoice wanted to get rid of eMedia's eMovies (DStv 138), eMovies Extra (DStv 140), eExtra (DStv 195) and eToonz (DStv 311) TV channels but in August the Competition Appeal Court granted yet another extension for e.tv's channels to remain on DStv for the time being.

MultiChoice was again ordered to keep the four TV channels on DStv until the conclusion of the Competition Tribunal's latest decision on case.

2023 Rugby World Cup country announcement to be broadcast live on SuperSport on DStv and SABC on Wednesday 15 November.

The announcement about which country will be hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup will be broadcast live on Wednesday afternoon from 14:30 on SuperSport channels on DStv as well as by the SABC.

The announcement of which candidate country will be hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup - South Africa, Ireland or France - will be broadcast on Wednesday on SuperSport 1 (DStv 201), SuperSport 10 (DStv 210) and CSN from 14:30.

The announcement will be made by the World Rugby Council from London where South Africa will be represented by senior members of government and South Africa Rugby.

The SABC will be broadcast the announcement as well on SABC2, SABC News (DStv 404) and SABC radio stations (SAFM, Radio2000, RSG, and 9 other radio stations from 14:30 until 16:00.

RSG and Radio2000 will also do live crossings from the public viewing area at Sammy Marks Square in Tshwane from midday.