SABC and SuperSport given the Olympic Games and Winter Olympics broadcasting rights for South Africa until 2024.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the Olympic Games free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasting rights for South Africa to the SABC and to SuperSport for the next two Olympic Games and the Winter Olympics.

The SABC to free-to-air viewers, and SuperSport to MultiChoice's DStv subscribers, will broadcast the Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic Games in 2024.

SuperSport was given the pay-TV rights in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, with the SABC given the free-to-air broadcasting rights in South Africa. Econet Media gets the free-to-air rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as pay-TV broadcasting rights as well for its Kwesé Sports channels, where it will compete with SuperSport for viewers.

According to the agreement the SABC will have to broadcast at least 200 hours of live or same day coverage of each edition of the Olympic Games and faily highlights of the Olympic Winter Games.

SuperSport will have to work with the IOC to support the development of the Olympic Channel, including the production of localised content and linear distribution across Africa.

"As long-time partners of the OIC, SuperSport is delighted to have secured these excellent Olympic rights," says Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO.

"The Games produce consistently good ratings, no doubt because of the non-stop drama and action that make for compelling viewing. We look forward to putting together a multi-platform, multi-channel offering that will reflect the Olympics in their full glory".

Sully Motsweni, the SABC's head of SABC Sport says "there are many live events that SABC Sport brings to millions of South Africans every day, but none comes close to the triumph of Olympic spirit and the ultimate objective of winning gold as our athletes represent South Africa on a global stage".

Habu Gumel, OIC member for broadcasting rights in Africa says "we are pleased to be able to continue our longstanding partnerships with DStv, SuperSport and the SABC".

International Olympic Committee (IOC) supports creation of a global Olympic Games TV channel to broadcast all-year round.

Sixteen International Olympic Committee (IOC) leaders and sports officials over the weekend backed the plan of IOC president Thomas Bach to create an Olympic Games TV channel to run all-year round, every year.

The creation of an Olympic TV channel or Olympic Games TV channel for the years in between the Olympic Games taking place will serve the purpose of promoting the games and keeping it in people's global consciousness.

Thomas Bach convened a summit in Lausanne, Switzerland to forge the Olympic Agenda 2020 which includes the proposal for an Olympic Games TV channel to broadcast globally as a new sports channel.

According to the Associated Press the goal of the sports channel would be to showcase lesser known and shown sports, and to attract a young(er) audience to Olympic Games sports.

In a statement the IOC said that it recognises "the potential to greatly increase the presence of sports and the promotion of the Olympic values year round and worldwide" with such a new sports channel.

"The IOC will contact all the relevant stakeholders in the coming months to further develop the concept".

The IOC wants to use the National Geographic Channel as a model for its Olympic TV channel, "curating" content that could be shown constantly.

Such a channel will fill the void in-between the times when South African viewers for instance watch the Olympic Games on South Africa's public broadcaster, SABC, and on pay-TV with MultiChoice which broadcast Olympic Games coverage on the various SuperSport TV channels in the country and across the rest of the African continent.

BREAKING. SABC signs broadcasting rights agreement to show some of the 2014 Sochi Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games in South Africa.

You're reading it here first. 

There's been no announcement or statement yet so far from the SABC, but the South African public broadcaster signed a broadcasting rights deal to show some of the 2014 winter Sochi Olympic Games on public television in South Africa just hours before the Sochi opening ceremony began on Friday evening.

The SABC also signed a broadcasting agreement for the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

While SuperSport has the pay-TV rights for SuperSport channels on MultiChoice's DStv, the SABC will broadcast parts of the 2014 Sochi Olympics on free-to-air television and radio in South Africa.

The SABC also gets non-exclusive internet and mobile broadcast rights for South Africa of the 2014 Sochi Games.

The same rights were also signed for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It's not clear how much the SABC paid for the rights for the 2014 Olympic Games and the 2016 summer Olympic Games.

UPDATE 14:00 - The SABC confirms to me that the public broadcaster has indeed acquired 2014 Sochi Olympic Games rights and will be doing a daily highlights package on South African public television.

It wont be appearing on SABC2 schedules since the deal was clinched last minute, but SABC2 will be used for Sochi Games coverage.

"SABC Sport has secured the rights to broadcast a daily highlights package of the Sochi Winter Olympics on SABC2," says the SABC.