SABC signs R65 million deal for broadcasting rights to 32 soccer matches of Afcon 2013.

After a long delay the SABC today announced a broadcasting agreement under which the South African public broadcaster will pay R65 million to broadcast 32 soccer games of the African Cup of Nations 2013 on television and radio.

The deal, negotiations which took months to conclude, will result in massive schedule and viewer disruption on the SABC's three TV channels, SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 which TV with Thinus reported last year would happen from January 2013.

Trade exchange - industry lingo for a media partner giving airtime in exchange for a same-value product offering - forms a part of the multimillion rand deal in which the SABC becomes the host broadcaster of Afcon 2013.

The broadcast agreement will see the SABC pay the local organising committee of Afcon 2013 R65 million in return for the rights to broadcast the soccer tournament taking place in South Africa this year.

"The deal with the local organising committee will reaffirm the SABC's position as the leading broadcaster for major sporting events of national importance," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the SABC's acting chief operations officer (COO) at the urgently convened press conference at the SABC which was called this morning.

"We have the skills and capacity to broadcast such events," says Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "The SABC is proud that other African broadcasters on the continent and local broadcasters will be receiving the feed for the tournament from the SABC as the host broadcaster for the tournament."

It is the first time that Afcon is giving a local broadcaster the right to directly capture the visuals and relay it to other broadcaster and video services; previously Afcon outsourced it to third-party companies directly who provided the video feed to broadcasters.

Long-stalled official announcement for Afcon 2013 broadcast deal between SABC and Africa Cup of Nations to be made by SABC later today.

The long-stalled and multiple delayed official announcement between the SABC and Afcon 2013 to officially announce a broadcasting deal between the South African public broadcaster and continental soccer tournament will now be taking place today.

The SABC has suddenly called an urgent press conference for later today to officially announce the deal.

The announcement of the deal has been called three previous times which were all cancelled at short notice.

The SABC told me previously the official announcement to confirm the broadcasting contract signing for Afcon 2013 between the South African public broadcaster and the Africa Cup of Nations is not the SABC's to be made.

The SABC will officially announce the deal at the broadcaster's Auckland Park headquarters later this morning.

The Afcon 2013 coverage will result in massive schedule disruption of the SABC's three TV channels with multiple timeslot and TV show shifts on SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3.

SABC: The official announcement of the signing of the broadcasting contract for Afcon 2013 is not the SABC's to be made.

Yesterday I reported that the official announcement of the contract for Afcon 2013 has been delayed for the third time in less than a week.

I reported that "the official announcement to be made by the SABC for Afcon 2013 has now been made three times, and cancelled three times".

The SABC called me today to tell me that the official announcement to confirm the broadcasting contract signing for Afcon 2013 between the South African public broadcaster and the Africa Cup of Nations is not the SABC's to be made.

Kaizer Kganyago, SABC spokesperson, told me that the SABC has no control over the official announcement and the scheduling of when that official confirmation will be made.

Official announcement of Afcon 2013 deal with SABC cancelled for a 3rd time in less than a week.

With massive schedule disruption looming for the SABC who will introduce sweeping programming changes across its TV channels in January 2013 to televise the Afcon 2013 soccer matches, the SABC has not yet breathed a single official word about the signed multi million rand contract - the would be announcement has been delayed for a 3rd time in a less than a week.

The official announcement to be made by the SABC for Afcon 2013 has now been made three times, and cancelled three times. It gets worse - the SABC and the Afcon 2013 local organising committee has been unable to yet reschedule the announcement for a new tentative 4th date.

The SABC currently doesn't know when it would be able to announce the Afcon 2013 deal.

The SuperSport 4 channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform will be showing all of the Afcon 2013 matches.


UPDATE Wednesday 5 December 2012 22:00 - The SABC tells me that the official announcement and when that happens is not the SABC's or the SABC's decision to make and that the South African public broadcaster has no control when that official confirmation of a signing of the Afcon 2013 broadcasting contract is made.