eMedia lost La Liga rights for Openview despite claiming it had it for 4 years, isn't telling viewers why.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia Holdings that runs e.tv, the TV news channel eNCA and the Openview satellite service has lost the broadcasting rights to La Liga and isn't telling viewers why, despite the company's chief operating officer who claimed a year ago that eMedia had secured the La Liga rights for the next 4 years.

Angry and upset Openview viewers who bought an Openview set-top box, told TVwithThinus that they did so because e.tv promised La Liga content. 

Viewers now say that Openview and e.tv lied to them and that e.tv and Openview continue to lie and deceive people by not removing online "advertising", falsely claiming that Openview has and is showing Spanish football.

This "advertising" that Openview viewers are talking about, is actually a press release that e.tv and Openview issued last year and placed on the Openview website, that hasn't been removed, and with no update or new statement that eMedia made since to say that it no longer has La Liga rights.

SuperSport and MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax are broadcasting La Liga matches but La Liga it is no longer available on Openview.

In the press release issued in September 2020, Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, claimed that e.tv and Openview had secured the rights for La Liga for the next 4 years. 

However, La Liga is gone after just a year, with no explanation as to why La Liga isn't being shown during what is supposed to be the second season of the 4-year contract. The 2020/2021 La Liga season kicked off in mid-August this year.

Asked why Openview is no longer showing La Liga, eMedia confirmed to TVwithThinus in response to a media query that "we no longer have the broadcasting rights". eMedia didn't explain why.

MultiChoice's Showmax Pro will again live stream all English Premier League matches, is also live streaming La Liga, Serie A and DStv Premier League.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service will once again live stream all English Premier League (EPL) matches on its Showmax Pro tier, and will also offer live stream all La Liga and Series A matches in South Africa and 49 other countries across Africa.

Showmax Pro is also streaming the DStv Premier League in more than 50 countries across Africa, as well as the UEFA Champion’s League for Showmax Pro subscribers in South Africa.

Following the live streaming of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Showmax Pro is live stream every match of the English Premier League, La Liga and Serie A, as well as the DStv Premiership in partnership with SuperSport.

The new season of Premier League, now in its 30th year, begins on 13 August, with newly-promoted Brentford hosting Arsenal to kick things off. 

As ever, the transfer season has had fans enthralled, with much of the focus on Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s future. For now, he is available to face Manchester City in Sunday’s Premier League season opener. Manchester City are the defending champions, having won their fifth Premier League title during the previous season.

Yet it is Manchester United, their cross-town rivals, who will be under more pressure. With manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer handed a new contract, he’ll be expected to do better than last season when their initial ambition gave way to City’s late-season heroics. 

The addition of four new managers will also add flair and a sense of anticipation to the league, not least the appointment of Rafael Benitez at Everton.

Spurs and Wolves also have new managers, but the most intriguing of all is Senegal-born Patrick Vieira at Crystal Palace. A World Cup winner for France in his day, the former midfielder will need to prove his management skills in double-quick time in an environment as unforgiving as the Premier League.

This will be the third season to use the video assistant referee (VAR) review system, and it will be the second season to have a February winter break.

The past 18 months were played largely behind closed doors, which affected the dynamics of play, not least the benefits of home advantage. The fans will be back from this week and so too the excitement of one of the most thrilling leagues in football. The season will end on 22 May 2022 with all 20 teams playing on the same day, bringing the curtain down on 380 fixtures.

Other European football action on Showmax includes La Liga, with action in the Spanish League beginning on 13 August with an opener between Valencia and Getafe. Atlético Madrid are defending champions, having won their 11th title last season.

In Italy, the Serie A campaign opens on 21 August with four matches: Hellas Verona vs Sassuolo, Inter vs Genoa, Empoli vs Lazio and Torino vs Atalanta.

Closer to home, the MTN8 this weekend will herald the start of the South African football season with the DStv Premiership starting the following weekend with champions Mamelodi Sundowns against last season’s runners-up AmaZulu on Friday, 20 August.

Last season, Sundowns become the first club to win four consecutive league titles since the establishment of the competition in 1996.

Four-time champions Orlando Pirates will host Stellenbosch FC in their opening league match on 21 August. Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs are scheduled to play TS Galaxy on 22 August.

Among many anticipated highlights, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates will meet in the first Soweto derby of the season on 6 November at FNB Stadium and again on 5 March, at Orlando Stadium.

Coronavirus: More crowdless live sports returning to SuperSport with camera and audio changes that will make matches look and sound different.

by Thinus Ferreira

More live international sport broadcasts are returning to SuperSport amidst the growing Covid-19 pandemic

Last week SuperSport announced that Premier League, La Liga and Series A matches would return for DStv subscribers in June along with the broadcast of the new Aotearoarugby event, with Formula 1 and cricket tests coming in July.

On Tuesday SuperSport said that Spain's La Liga matched will "look and sound far different" than they did before the league was postponed because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

There will now be a "virtualisation" of stands for international broadcasters like SuperSport and changes to "fan audio", in addition to new camera positions and the images that that will offer to DStv subscribers.

For these broadcasts, the stands will be virtualised and offer to-scale images of seated fans wearing the colours of the home club. 

When match play is stopped, this image of fans can be transformed into a canvas that matches the colour of the home team.

"Virtual sound" will also be played into matches with the sound that was recorded in real stadiums.

In terms of camera angles matches will also be seen differently because of new camera positions. Some cameras will shift their location to positions where they would previously have affected the sightline of fans in the stands.

The aerial camera will modify its flight path to offer new shots, the bench camera will be moved to the opposite stand, while robotic cameras will be used in the tunnel for reasons of health safety.

"We have made these broadcasting changes so fans can enjoy La Liga," says Javier Tebas, La Liga president. "We work with global partners to offer a great viewer experience. We are in an exceptional situation, but for us it has been important to be able to adapt and offer a compelling, cutting-edge broadcast to our fans."

On Saturday Espanyol will play against Alaves (SuperSport 1/ SuperSport 4 / SuperSport 7/ SSM / SSM2) at 14:00, and on Sunday Athletic Bilbao plays Atletico Madrid (SuperSport 1 / SuperSport 7 / SuperSport 4 / SuperSport Maximo / SuperSport Maximo 2) at 14:00.


Impossible Games, PGA, UFC added
SuperSport is also getting athletics, golf and UFC content again.

The Impossible Games will be broadcast on Thursday (CSN / SL3G / SuperSport 1 / SuperSport 8 / SuperSport Maximo) at 20:00 when Team Cheruiyot will race against formidable Norwegian brothers Team Ingebrigsten (Henrik, Filip, and Jakob) as part of the Impossible Games in a novel 2000m race.

While the Europeans compete at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, 1500m world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, Manangoi, Edwin Meli, Vincent Keter, and Timothy Sein will race at Nairobi’s Nyayo National Stadium. There won’t be a single fan in the stands due to the pandemic.

Cheruiyot will be joined by his predecessor as world champion, Elijah Manongoi, as the two teams compete to see which team can clock the best overall 2000m time from its top three runners.

While the race is being held as a team event, individual performances will also count, with the three Ingebrigtsen brothers aiming to break Steve Cram’s European record of four minutes 51.39 seconds.

PGA golf also makes its long-awaited return this week, with the Charles Schwab Classic in the US starting on Thursday 11 June (CSN / SuperSport 1 / SuperSport 5) at 22:00. Here there will also be no live crowds.

Fighting Championship (UFC) will also feature this weekend with UFC Fight Night headlined by Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo in a flyweight showdown in Las Vegas on Saturday (SuperSport 1 / SuperSport 11) from 04:00.

Coronavirus: Some live sports returning to SuperSport in June amidst Covid-19 pandemic including Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and new Aotearoa rugby event; F1 and cricket tests coming in July.

by Thinus Ferreira

Some live sports is returning to the various SuperSport channels on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV service as the regulations around various national lockdown periods around the world are being scaled back and which saw all sporting codes and events cancelled in a dramatic cascade-effect since late March 2020 because of the global Covid-19 pandemic. 

Earlier during Covid-19 SuperSport wasn't willing to answer any specific questions around the impact of Covid-19 or to make any executives available to speak about how SuperSport tried to adapt to the "new normal" regarding scheduling and content changes.

On Tuesday, Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO, speaking about the return of some international soccer matches, in a prepared statement says that "The leagues' closed-doors policy may take some getting used to, but the television product ought to be as thrilling as ever".

Next weekend will see the resumption of the Premier League with 92 matches lined up to complete the season, along with matches from the La Liga and Serie A leagues that will also likely return later during June.

From 11 June to 12 July there will be at least one La Liga fixture played each day before all 20 clubs play their final two matches simultaneously on 15 July and 19 July.

Italy approved the resumption of Serie A from 20 June after it was suspended on 9 March.

New Zealand's Aotearoa rugby event involving the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders will start on 13 June with all matches that will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

On Friday the Investec Coronation Cup horse race will take place in Britain and will be broadcast live on SuperSport as well.

Next week the PGA Tour golf will return on 11 June with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas starting a stretch of 25 weeks of tournament golf.

In July Formula One will also be back with SuperSport that will broadcast the revised season beginning in Austria on the weekend of 3 July.

In international cricket England will host West Indies for three Tests over 21 days, starting 8 July that will be shown on SuperSport. The three matches will be played behind closed doors.