MultiChoice says abducted and rescued Nigerian sports crew were CAF freelancers and not working for DStv

by Thinus Ferreira

Contrary to reports from Nigeria that a crew of MultiChoice and SuperSport was abducted with one person killed on their way to cover an Afcon match, MultiChoice tells TVwithThinus the crew was freelance workers hired by CAF with the match not shown on DStv.

SP Tochukwu Ikenga, police public relations officer of the Anambra State Police Command in Awka, Nigeria, tells TVwithThinus that "Joint security forces have successfully rescued six members of the media crew who were abducted while travelling from Lagos to Uyo along Isseke-Orlu Road in Ihiala".

A 7th member was shot and killed.

While Nigeria reports said that the crew worked for MultiChoice, the pay-TV operator tells me the crew in question are freelancers hired by CAF and that MultiChoice was not even showing that specific match on any of the DStv TV channels.

StarTimes acquires broadcasting rights to 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sub-Saharan Africa set for 9 January in Cameroon.

by Thinus Ferreira

China's StarTimes pay-TV service in Africa has acquired the broadcasting rights for sub-Saharan Africa for the Confederation Africaine de Football's (CAF) 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The 33rd Afcon will take place in Cameroon between 9 January and 6 February 2022.

The 2021 Afcon was originally scheduled for June 2021 but was postponed, and was postponed a second time in June 2020 to January 2022 due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, but would keep the name 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will be played by 24 teams in 5 cities (Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussam, Garoua and Limbe) across Cameroon, with Algeria as the defending champions.

StarTimes acquired the pay-TV rights and over-the-top (OTT) rights for the 2021 Afcon across all sub-Saharan Africa territories in English, Portuguese, as well as African local languages. 

StarTimes will broadcast all 52 matches live and in full high-definition (HD) across 8 sports TV channels as well as on its video streaming service StarTimes ON.

"StarTimes has made a strategic priority to support African football and bring it to fans across the continent," says StarTimes in a statement.

"We are honoured to partner with CAF again, following the successful broadcasting of the 2019 AFCON and the 2020 CHAN. To us, there is no better way to start 2022 than to watch African top players compete for the continental crown."

ALSO READ: SuperSport acquires broadcasting rights to 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sub-Saharan Africa, 52 matches will also live-stream on Showmax Pro.

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.

BREAKING. In decision-reversal, SABC decided to show all remaining Afcon soccer games live using both SABC1 and SABC2.

In a major decision-reversal that comes with massive cost and detrimental advertising revenue implications for the SABC, the South African public broadcaster just announced that it will screen the remainder of the African Cup of Nations soccer matches live - a week after the SABC said that it won't be moving its biggest show, Generations to accomodate the continental soccer matches.

Last week the SABC said that it won't be moving South Africa's biggest TV show in viewership - Generations - to a different timeslot to accomodate Afcon matches which the SABC said it would broadcast delayed live. Generations is a cash cow for the broadcaster, raking in millions per month in advertising fees - much more than soccer matches which actually cost the SABC millions in broadcasting rights to secure.

The SABC, with new group CEO Lulama Mokhobo, has decided to reverse tact and will start broadcasting all of the remaining Afcon games live from tomorrow, Saturday 28 January by moving Generations on SABC1 and also using sister channel SABC2 for Afcon broadcasts.

''The decision was taken to respond to the public's plea to see all the games live,'' says Lulama Mokhobo. ''In order to achieve this, consultation was done with several stakeholders including advertisers, to be able to balance our mandate as a public service broadcaster, towards sporting codes of national and continental importance, as well as our business imperatives.''

''For us as a public service broadcaster, it was important to listen to our viewer's needs, and try to accommodate them, within our means,'' says Lulama Mokhobo.

Generations on SABC1 will be moving earlier to 19:00 from Monday 30 January to accomodate Afcon games starting at 20:00 on SABC1. Afcon games will also be shown at 20:00 on SABC2 from Monday 30 January on weekdays which means that SABC2 will be dumping its existing schedule from 20:00 and shows such as the popular Pasella on this coming Tuesday at 17:30.

BREAKING. SuperSport 4 turning into a 24 hour channel broadcasting all the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations games live, from Saturday.

SuperSport 4 (DStv 204) will be turning into a 24 hour 2012 Africa Cup of Nations channel on Saturday morning at 06:00.

SuperSport will be broadcasting all 32 games live from Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in high definition (HD).

All 32 games will be live on SuperSport 4 with the overflow from matches played simultaneously in the latter rounds of the group stages shown live on SuperSport 6 (DStv 206), Blitz (DStv 200) and Maximo (DStv 209).

Outside of South Africa, the SuperSport 9 channel, which is not a 24 hour channel, will mirror SuperSport 4, and will broadcast all live events from the tournament which includes two magazine shows, Hello Africa and Master Plan.

Robert Marawa, Carol Radul, Charles Anazodo, Carol Tshabalala and Thomas Mlambo are the presenters. Before the 2012 Afcon starts with the opening ceremony on Saturday from 18:30, SuperSport will broadcast the opening ceremony as well as the semi-finals and final match of both Ghana 2008 and Angola 2010.

SABC not moving its soap cash cow Generations from its primetime spot just to show the Africa Cup of Nations soccer matches live.

The SABC will not be moving its number one soap and number one TV show in South Africa overall - Generations on SABC1 - to show Africa Cup of Nations soccer matches live.

The public broadcaster will only be showing 8 out of the 32 Afcon matches which kicks off on Saturday as live matches. The rest of the 24 matches will be showed delayed live.

The SABC which had to decide between dumping or rescheduling Generations, or showing the soccer matches live after the Africa Cup of Nations suddenly changed kick-off times to co-incide with SABC1's most profitable primetime block, decided to stick with what made more money sense - its hugely successful soap.

''Eighty per cent of our revenue comes from advertisements during soaps like Generations which makes more money than football,'' says Kaizer Kganyago, SABC spokesperson.

''The games are taking place during primetime and the decision was based on a scheduling issue.'' He said the SABC is ''accountable in making a profit'' and that the SABC ''have to strike a balance for other viewers who don't follow soccer''.

''We are free-to-air television and we cannot just throw money away, but that does not mean that we didn't buy the rights to screen 32 Afcon matches. The matches will be screened delayed live.''