SABC cricket blackout after public broadcaster fails to sign contract with Cricket SA for latest Australian tour.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African public broadcaster has once again failed to reach any agreement or to sign any contract with Cricket South Africa which will lead to a SABC TV blackout for viewers from today for the latest Australian cricket tour.

The SABC will not broadcast any of the latest limited-over Australian tour of South Africa after the SABC failed to sign any contract with Cricket SA for any of the three T20I and three one-day international matches.

The first match in the T20 series will be taking place today at 18:00 at Kingsmead in Durban and the tour will be shown on SuperSport for DStv pay-TV subscribers.

The SABC constantly tells parliament that it should be allowed to broadcast sport of national importance and of South Africa's national teams and that the reason it's not doing so is because it's prevented from acquiring content due to MultiChoice and SuperSport snapping up all the rights.

There's been no statement and no comment from the SABC about not showing the South African Australian cricket tour.

Meanwhile Cricket SA, hilariously and ironically, has the audacity to claim in a statement that while the cricket is not on the SABC, that it is "commitment to making cricket accessible to all South Africans". Since the cricket is not on the SABC, that is exactly what Cricket SA is failing to do.

Cricket SA in a statement says that "After protracted negotiations, the two parties could unfortunately not reach agreeable terms to secure broadcast rights in time to cover the tour".

"While CSA is disappointed at the prospect of many South Africans missing out on coverage of the thrill of the much-awaited Australia series, it reaffirms its commitment to making cricket accessible to all South Africans".

"Consequently, CSA will continue to engage with the SABC to find common ground on the broadcasting of cricket content."

"This is as the public broadcaster pursues to fulfil its mandate of providing cricket coverage for the majority of South Africans, while CSA is unwavering in its quest to ensure that cricket reaches all corners of the country. It is a symbiosis that binds the two organisations together."

"With CSA and the SABC partnership having provided mutually beneficial value in the past, CSA believes that it is in the interest of both the parties' stakeholders that such a partnership be maintained into the future."

SABC3 schedule disruption due to the Mzansi Super League: Here are the shows getting shelved and how others like Isidingo, Top Billing, the English news bulletin, Bold and the Beautiful and EFC are impacted.

The SABC has had to change the SABC3 schedule to make space for the first Mzansi Super League (MSL) that will be broadcast from today for a month

The Mzansi Super League (MSL) with 6 cricket teams playing in 6 different cities across South Africa will be shown on SABC3 and broadcast on Radio 2000 from 16 November to 16 December.

As a result of the cricket matches a lot of SABC3 shows will be affected including Mela, SafariLive, Afternoon Express, @The Table, The Docket, #WTF Tumi and Trending SA.that are getting shelved.

SABC3 is taking the American weekday soap The Bold and the Beautiful off-air on 21, 28 and 30 November as well as on 5, 7 and 12 December.

The Bold and the Beautiful will remain in its usual timeslot except for these days when it won't be on.

SABC3's local weekday soap Isidingo is moving from 19:00 to 18:00 on 21, 28 and 30 November.

On 5, 7 and 12 December Isidingo will be shown at 18:15 on SABC3.

The English TV news bulletin will move from 21:00 to 20:45 Monday to Saturday and on Sundays to 19:45 for the duration of the tournament.

From 18 November Top Billing is moving to Sundays at 20:00 for the next month.

The EFC Live match on 8 December will be at delayed and will be shown at 23:00 on SABC3.

The Premier League Review Magazine on 27 November, and 4 and 11 December will be broadcast at 23:30.

SuperSport and Cricket South Africa's T20 League joint venture derails as CSA says it will still try to mount the T20 with SuperSport that will try to secure the broadcasting rights.

SuperSport and Cricket South Africa's (CSA) announced joint venture in June to establish a new, annual T20 cricket tournament has imploded and comes after 2017's botched attempt to establish this new tournament.

CSA and SuperSport announced in June that they would form a new company, Newco, in which CSA would be the majority shareholder and both contributing capital to fund the new venture.

That plan has now derailed with SuperSport announcing that it has dumped the proposed joined venture with CSA to do the T20 tournament. If CSA pulls the T20 off on its own - scheduled for November 2018 - SuperSport would however still be interested in acquiring broadcasting rights to it.

"This is unfortunate. We reached an in-principle agreement with CSA regarding co-ownership of this event in June this year," says Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO.

"Since then, the parties have been engaged in amicable discussions regarding the details of the proposed relationship. We have used our best endeavours to reach consensus with CSA around that shareholding model, but this has unfortunately not happened. The discussions on the in-principle shareholding agreement terminated on 23 July 2018."

"We have therefore decided to discontinue negotiations about shareholding. We are, however engaged in constructive discussions with CSA regarding the broadcast of the event."

After botched 2017 attempt, Cricket South Africa and SuperSport announce a joint venture to establish a new, annual T20 cricket tournament to kick off in November 2018.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) and SuperSport announced a new broadcast deal and a new company, to establish a new, as-yet-unnamed, annual T20 cricket tournament that will start in November 2018 to replace the flopped version that flamed out in October 2017.

The planned tournament imploded when CSA and SuperSport failed to come to terms over the pegged price of the broadcasting rights which saw CSA fire its then CEO, Haroon Lorgat over the shambles.

SuperSport as existing right-holder refused to cough up more for for the planned tournament while CSA saw it as a new venture not covered by existing deals.

Now CSA and SuperSport are forming a new company, in which CSA will be the majority shareholder and both will contribute capital to fund the new venture.

SuperSport that will broadcast the tournament throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the adjacent islands, "and provide a broadcast feed to international broadcasters".

The annual, new T20 tournament will take place for the first time in November and December 2018.

"We have put the problems we experienced with the proposed Global T20 League behind us and look forward to hosting the new competition," says Thabang Moroe, acting CSA CEO.

"This event will create wonderful opportunities for local players, including current Proteas and up and coming youngsters, to hone their white-ball skills."

Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO, says "This agreement sees our relationship taken to the next level, where we will pool our mutual resources in a partnership which will create high-quality cricket and provide entertaining content for cricket fans locally and broadcast viewers both domestically and globally".

"To have Proteas and international stars competing together with local talent will improve the quality of T20 cricket produced by South Africa."

BREAKING. SABC and Cricket South Africa (CSA) sign a new contract for cricket coverage on South African public television.

The SABC and Cricket South Africa (CSA) today signed a broadcasting rights deal which will see cricket action return to public television in South Africa for all matches played by the Proteas during the upcoming cricket season.

The SABC made no announcement on Thursday of the deal.

According to the terms of the contract all the Sunfoil Test matches against Indian and Australia, the Momemtum ODI's against Pakistan and India, and the KFC T20's between the Proteas and Pakistan and Australia will be shown by the SABC, predominantly on SABC3.

Cricket South Africa's chief executive Haroon Lorgat described the deal as "wonderful news", saying the agreement benefits both the SABC and CSA.

He said CSA is "delighted that we have secured this agreement". "We have plenty of international cricket this summer and I'm sure that our fans would love to follow the Proteas live in action."