McDonalds and Hollywood Bets jointly pay R50 million as sponsors for SABC to acquire Afcon 2023 tournament from New World TV.

by Thinus Ferreira

The fast-food chain McDonalds and the gambling site Hollywood Bets are jointly paying about R50 million to be the two main sponsors of the South African public broadcaster's coverage of the 2023 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament kicking off on 13 January.

The SABC (for the free-to-air rights), as well as China's StarTimes trading as StarSat in South Africa (for the pay-TV rights), sub-licensed the rights to the Afcon 2023 from Togo's New World TV.

MultiChoice and SuperSport are sitting out this year's Afcon taking place in Ivory Coast - the first time since 1992 that there won't be any coverage of this continental Africa football tournament. 

In South Africa, 2023 Afcon will still be seen on DStv however when watching the SABC's channels carried on DStv. Afcon coverage and matches will also be on eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite service since the SABC's TV channels are carried on Openview as well.

The SABC sublicensed the rights to all 52 of the 2023 Afcon matches, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.

"The SABC is happy that we have two headline sponsors who covered the costs of about R50 million - a betting company and a fast-food outlet. As things stand, it's all systems go," the SABC says.

SuperSport says it doesn't see its lack of 2023 Afcon coverage damaging either SuperSport or DStv.

"Due to the structural nature and economics of the pay-TV business, we do not expect it to have any material impact on our business," says Sibusiso Mjikeliso, SuperSport communications manager.

ALSO READ: SABC, StarTimes and StarSat sublicense full 2023 Afcon tournament from New World TV widening the cracks in MultiChoice's SuperSport dominance.

BREAKING. The SABC WILL air the African Cup of Nations from Sunday.

You're reading it here first.

The SABC just told me that the South African public broadcaster WILL air the African Cup of Nations from tomorrow. The first match between Angola and Mali will be broadcast on SABC1 from 21:00.

The SABC will show all of the soccer matches, but not all of them will be broadcast live.

''We're going to show all of the games,'' SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago just told me, ''but not all of them will be live. Half of them will be live and the rest will be delayed.''

He told me that the SABC secured the deal to broadcast Africa's biggest soccer show late on Friday evening.

This follows after the SABC sent a delegation to France to try and secure the broadcasting rights for South Africa from SportFive. This new last-minute agreement follows an acrimonious to-and-from between the SABC and SportFive regarding previous agreements worth R1 billion that was signed in 2008 between the two for sport broadcasting rights. Later the SABC backed out of the deal that it claimed the broadcaster entered into ''illegally''.

A high ranking insider source within the SABC told me yesterday that as a precursor to the 2010 Soccer World Cup and the broadcaster's perceived ability to successfully show that tournament later in the year, that it was ''imperative'' to get the rights for the African Cup of Nations. ''There is no way that the SABC is not going to show the African Cup of Nations,'' the source told me. ''Not being able to show the African Cup of Nations before the World Cup would not look good and be an additional embarrasement that the broadcaster cannot afford''.