MultiChoice to supply curated SuperSport Schools streaming channel to SABC+

by Thinus Ferreira

In a new deal between MultiChoice and South Africa's public broadcaster, curated content from SuperSport's SuperSport Schools will be funnelled to SABC+ as a SuperSport Schools streaming channel from 8 February.

Neither MultiChoice or SuperSport, nor the SABC is willing to say how much the public broadcaster is paying for carriage of the SuperSport Schools streaming channel.

The new SuperSport Schools streaming contract between SuperSport and the SABC is part of a concerted broader effort by specifically MultiChoice to improve and strengthen a commercial relationship with the public broadcaster, and through it to solidify the SABC's stance as an ally against eMedia's e.tv and its Openview satellite platform.

In future negotiations over - as well as deals for - the sublicensing of big-ticket sports content from SuperSport, it is important for MultiChoice and SuperSport that the SABC takes their side - or at the very least remain silent and neutral - if any three-way sublicensing carriage conflicts break out between MultiChoice, eMedia and the SABC like it did in 2024. 

The SuperSport Schools streaming channel on SABC+ will carry a selection of content from SuperSport Schools that filmed over 60 000 school matches in 2024 across a variety of sports disciplines.

The channel will showcase a diverse range of schools and youth sport, including football, netball, rugby, athletics, hockey and basketball.

SuperSport Schools has more than a million registered users with some of the content that has been available on it now getting a second window on SABC+.

Rendani Ramovha, SuperSport CEO, says "We want to encourage participation in sports at a grassroots level and reignite interest in sports across all schools in the country. Both SuperSport and the SABC share a common vision of providing young athletes with a platform to shine and inspiring future generations of sportsmen and women".

Nomsa Chabeli, SABC CEO, in a prepared quote, states "We are proud to be part of this life-changing partnership that extends beyond the fulfilment of the SABC’s mandate, by offering South Africans from all walks of life, a platform that nurtures young talent and provides unparalleled opportunities for personal and professional development".

"This partnership allows the SuperSport Schools channel to be accessible on the SABC+ streaming platform, enabling rising stars to gain recognition in the early stages of their lives, which will lead to more opportunities in the future.”

Thandolwethu Bakumeni, head of SuperSport Schools, says "We are thrilled that the SABC is joining us in the promotion of schools' sport".

"This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to nurture young talent and make schools and youth sports a key part of South Africa’s cultural fabric.  After all, World Cups are won 10 years before they are played.”
 
Keletso Totlhanyo, head of SABC Sport, says "SABC Sport is dedicated to providing our viewers with the best local sports content, and this new venture with SuperSport Schools will allow us to bring even more exciting and inspirational content to South African homes".

The curated content on the SABC Schools streaming channel on SABC+ will focus on some of the popular and significant sports in South Africa, including football, netball, rugby, athletics, hockey, and basketball.

MultiChoice slams Openview over 2023 Rugby World Cup TV rights legal action: 'A classic example of free-riding'.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is slamming eMedia's Openview as "a classic example of free-riding" after the Randburg-based pay-TV operator and the SABC have been dragged to court blocking Openview from showing 2023 Rugby World Cup matches on SuperSport and SABC2 and which Openview hasn't paid for.

After the SABC paid R57 million to sublicence 16 of the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches from SuperSport, viewers of SABC2 on Openview get filler content during matches, while viewers of the SABC2 channel carried on DStv and StarSat, as well as on SABC+ see the Rugby World Cup matches.

eMedia and Openview didn't pay for the Rugby World Cup matches and didn't license and pay for any content from the Rugby World Cup organisers.

eMedia also didn't sublicence content from SuperSport but argues that what is shown on any SABC channels should be available, and the same, anywhere, irrespective of the platform the SABC's channels are on. 

eMedia and Openview decided to take MultiChoice to court.

In its answering affidavit to eMedia's urgent application before the High Court of South Africa's Gauteng division in Johannesburg, Marc Jury, MultiChoice SA CEO, says that Openview now wants to show 2023 Rugby World Cup matches for free "at no cost to itself despite the fact that it could have participated in the process of securing a licence for those rights from World Cup Rugby directly but never did so".

"After SuperSport had acquired the licence from RWCL in Dublin, Ireland, SuperSport entered into a sublicensing agreement with the SABC to allow for Springboks and other matches to be broadcast on the SABC."

"SuperSport and the SABC agreed that the SABC could exploit the rights on its own owed and operated platforms but it would not be permitted to make available the licensed matches on any third party-owned or operated platform," Marc Jury explains.

"This meant that the SABC is not permitted to make the matches available for broadcast on third-party platforms like Openview. eMedia wants to broadcast the matches to their Openview customers without paying a cent to do so".

'Classic example of free-riding'

Marc Jury says eMedia and Openview "were well within their rights to engage in the competitive process to acquire a licence from World Rugby to broadcast the Rugby World Cup 2023 matches. They elected not to do so. 

While SuperSport already started the process in 2018 and acquired the rights in mid-2018 for 2023's Rugby World Cup "eMedia's case is a classic example of free-riding - seeking to profit off another's expense without contributing at all," Jury argues.

He says eMedia and Openview are wrong in claiming that 3.2 million TV households are unable to watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup matches.

"The viewership of the SABC channels on Openview is a far cry from the 3.2 million households with Openview set-top boxes, let alone the claimed 10 million viewers. Further, the viewership of SABC2 is smaller at a mere 61 605 and SABC Sport even smaller at 18 144 as at 31 March 2023."

Jury says that the irony is that "if eMedia's application were to succeed, it would actually result in far fewer South Africans watching the remaining matches of the Rugby World Cup 2023 than has been the case for the past Springbok games".

"That is because if, contrary to everything that has been set out above, this court were to conclude that the restriction in the sublicence with the SABC is unenforceable and invalid, then the entire sublicence between SuperSport and the SABC would fail because the restriction cannot be severed from the remainder of the sublicence."

"The result will be that there will be no free-to-air broadcast of the remaining Rugby World Cup matches."

According to Jury, "this will be a sorry day for rugby in South Africa but the result will lie squarely at the feet of eMedia".

SABC got it even cheaper

Marc Jury says that "if it were not for SuperSport being willing to pay the substantial price it did for the rights, no-one in South Africa would be able to view Rugby World Cup matches at all".

"It has therefore been SuperSport who has advanced, rather than undermined or infringed, the South African public's interest in watching the matches. The SABC has also itself spent money to acquire the sublicensed Rugby World Cup matches in stark contract to eMedia which seeks to transmit those matches for free."

Jury explains that the SABC got the 2023 Rugby World Cup sublicensing rights from SuperSport at R57 million at a much cheaper price than it did before.

"The amount paid by the SABC under the sublicence agreement was far below market value for the rights" he notes and says it's also "far below the amounts paid by the SABC for the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup".

"SuperSport elected to accept this amount with considerable concern and at economic cost to itself but did so mindful of the SABC's financial position in order to promote the free-to-air coverage on the public broadcasting service."

"A broadcaster having a genuine interest in broadcasting valuable rights would plan well in advance of the events in question and seek, on a commercial basis, to acquire those rights on a licensing or sublicensing basis. These are steps that eMedia has simply failed to take," Jury notes. 

The hearing for eMedia's urgent application is scheduled for Tuesday 10 October. 

ALSO READ: e.tv takes SuperSport to court over SABC's sublicensed Rugby World Cup TV rights.

SHOCKER. Gary Rathbone quits as SABC Sport boss.

by Thinus Ferreira

Gary Rathbone has quit as head of SABC Sport after two years, with the South African public broadcaster confirming that he is leaving at the end of the month.

"During his two-year tenure, Gary Rathbone made a significant contribution to SABC Sport's content offering," the SABC says in a statement. "He was particularly instrumental in the launch of its 24.7 SABC Sport channel."

"The SABC wishes Gary Rathbone well in his future endeavours," the broadcaster says.

As SABC Sport boss Gary Rathbone had vocal barbs at MultiChoice and SuperSport for their unwillingness to resell sports rights, with MultiChoice and SuperSport unwilling to let the sport content stream on the SABC Sport's digital channel version on eMedia's Openview and TelkomONE.

Gary Rathbone said it was his mission to bring more local boxing, tennis and other local South African sports to the channel, with SABC Sports that clinched deals to bring ESPN basketball to the channel over the past two years.

Since SABC Sport launched as a TV channel, viewers have constantly complained, and continue to, about not knowing what's showing and what's on, not having access to a proper, correct and updated SABC Sport programming schedule, late and irrelevant notifications, as well as vague promises of coverage which - comes broadcasting time - is then not available.

ALSO READ: South African public broadcaster does a cobbled-together 'official' launch of SABC Sport as a TV channel complete with wooden benches on astro turf; says free sports could help drive digital migration push to DTT.

SABC adds weekday horse racing show Racing Today to SABC Sport from April with showcase events on SABC3 in new contract with 4Racing.

by Thinus Ferreira

The SABC is adding a half-hour weekday horse racing show, Racing Today, to its SABC Sport channel from April that will run for 3 years, as well as 10 showcase horse racing events that will be shown in primetime on SABC3 after signing a contract with 4Racing.

Racing Today will be shown on weekdays for half an hour per day, Mondays to Fridays, over a three-year period, for 50 weeks a year, with 10 of South Africa's showcase horse-racing events that will be shown in primetime on SABC3.

The SABC's deal for a horse racing magazine show in the form of Racing Today, as well as the showcase horse-racing events from 4Racing, is separate from 4Racing TV's deal with MultiChoice.

4Racing is giving MultiChoice's DStv subscribers the same content in the form of showing the same horse-racing events to a pay-TV audience through the new Racing 240 TV channel that MultiChoice added to DStv in mid-January this year.

From April 2022 Racing Today will be on SABC Sport as the South African public broadcaster's digital terrestrial TV channel, also available to eMedia's Openview satellite platform, and on Telkom's TelkomONE vide streaming service, but not to MultiChoice's DStv or StarTimes' StarSat platforms.

Fundi Sithebe, 4Racing CEO, in a statement, says "We are delighted to partner with the SABC in this multi-year deal to ensure the sport of horse racing returns as a regular addition to the SABC's premier sports programming".

"Having the country's largest free-to-air broadcaster, with an audience reach of over 32 million across the country, helps us to fulfil our mandate to reach new audiences, grow participation in and knowledge of the sport, and make horse racing more accessible."

"Through the SABC's coverage over the years of legendary South African horses like Wolf Power, Horse Chestnut, Jet Master, Sea Cottage and Pocket Power, and jockeys like Felix Coetzee, Michael ‘Muis’ Roberts, Pierre Strydom and Jeff Lloyd, horse racing became a premier sport and those horses and jockeys household names across the country."

Gary Rathbone, the head of SABC Sport, says in the statement that "horse racing has long been a major part of the SABC Sport offering and after a long absence from our platforms, it's great to have the sport of kings back on air on the public broadcaster".

"Being able to feature South Africa’s best thoroughbreds and champions jockeys fighting it out in these iconic races on the annual calendar is something I'm sure will excite millions of South Africans who will now be able to access the best racing on offer live and free on the SABC."

Stephen Watson, head of 4Racing TV and Discover Digital executive director, says the "deal with the SABC is a significant one for us at 4Racing and for all current and prospective punters and racegoers who love the sport".

"We have been working with the SABC over the last year and this partnership has already seen live coverage of major race days such as the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met and Summer Cup and the L'Ormarins Queens Plate, while we've also assisted Gold Circle to get one of the country's biggest and most important race days, the Gold Cup, broadcast live on SABC3".

In sudden U-turn the SABC will now show 2021 Afcon matches delayed and live on SABC1 from Saturday 6 days after tournament started after first saying it 'can't always cater to the masses'.

by Thinus Ferreira

In an abrupt U-turn the South African public broadcaster will start broadcasting delayed and live matches of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) on SABC1 from today, 6 days after the start of the tournament after initially saying that it "can't always cater to the masses" and that Afcon popularity has been declining.

The 33rd Afcon taking place in Cameroon started on 9 January and will run until 6 February 2022 with 24 teams playing in 5 cities (Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussam, Garoua and Limbe) across Cameroon, with Algeria as the defending champions.

The 33rd 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 kept the name 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

Both SuperSport and China's StarTimes acquired the pay-TV rights, with MultiChoice's DStv and Showmax Pro subscribers, and StarTimes and StarSat subscribers able to watch the 2021 Afcon. 

It's the first time that MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax is making all 52 Afcon matches available as live streaming for Showmax Pro subscribers.

The SABC chose to only show the 2021 Afcon on its SABC Sport channel that is only available on digital terrestrial television (DTT) and not as an analogue TV channel, on eMedia's Openview satellite service and on the TelkomONE video streaming, and not on SABC1, SABC2 or SABC3.

Earlier this week in a radio interview on SAfm, David Makhubyane, the SABC's head of TV channels, said that "You can't always cater to the masses" as the reason for the SABC not showing the 2021 Afcon on SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3. "The data has shown that we have a dip in numbers when showing Afcon," he said.

"Previous data has shown us that Afcon is not as popular on SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 when Bafana is not there. So we have to balance the sustainability of the channels and our responsibility of showing other content".

On Friday afternoon the SABC issued a programming advisory with scheduling changes and advising the media that "SABC1 will broadcast the African Cup of Nations starting Saturday 15 January 2022". The broadcaster didn't issue a formal press statement and didn't explain the U-turn.

The SABC1 2021 Afcon coverage will kick off with the broadcast of the match between Guinea-Bissau and Egypt shown live today at 20:30. 

From Sunday, SABC1 will broadcast Afcon matches daily, but on a delayed basis until 29 January when the matches of the quarter-final teams round start which will be broadcast live on 29 and 30 January.

The semi-final teams match on 2 February will be live on SABC1 at 21:00 and the semi-finals match on 3 February shown delayed. The 2021 Afcon final will be shown live on SABC1 on Sunday 6 February at 21:00 with build-up coverage starting at 20:30.

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.

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

SA TV 2021: A shockwave year in television filled with loss, lockdown and an octopus that won an Oscar.

by Thinus Ferreira

During South African television's tumultuous 2021 - bearing witness to shocking unrest and looting, neverending loadshedding and an unfolding Covid-crisis - the one reassuring constant was TV soaps and telenovelas like Uzalo, with the nation's nightly collection of comforting primetime series stretching from Generations to Isono that continued to provide a sense of uninterrupted assurance and "normalcy" in a world seemingly gone mad.

In probably the worst year on record for South Africa's TV and film industry - rocked by a shockwave of thousands of permanent and temporary job losses as work evaporated, hundreds of deaths due to Covid-19, as well as countless and repeated Covid-19 production shutdowns across multiple series under Lockdown Level 4 - 2021's big unrecognised TV miracle is that the TV soap operas endured.

As the industry was upended behind-the-scenes, TV channels kept broadcasting new episodes nightly during 2021 with its escapist local mix of fantasy, conflict, weddings and scandals, that continued to enthral a combined audience of millions of viewers across Southern Africa.

In 2021, South Africans watched Squid Game on Netflix, Devilsdorp on Showmax and welcomed House of Zwide on e.tv. 

Viewers sat transfixed before eNCA, Newzroom Africa and SABC News to see former president Jacob Zuma being arrested and going to jail, and how South Africans ransacked shopping malls. 

They huddled together in front of the soft glow of their TV screens when president Cyril Ramaphosa beckoned for yet another "family meeting".

Love Island South Africa on M-Net flopped but The Bachelorette SA was more successful. The Real Housewives of Durban and Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island (forced to film in South Africa on the Eastern Cape coast) were hits. 

South Africans got their Friday episode of 7de Laan on SABC2 back (that also reached 5000 episodes). 

While kykNET's new on-air rebranding was more successful, SABC3's rebranding to "S3" saw the channel's already anaemic ratings only fall further this year while its Isidingo replacement, The Estate, failed in luring the viewers it should and likely on borrowed time. 

uBettina Wethu (South Africa's Ugly Betty-version) wasn't the success it could have been. Showmax tried Temptation Island SA as both it and Netflix added further local South African content to their catalogues.

MultiChoice's Showmax launched its first South African telenovela, The Wife, but the most expensive South African drama series yet produced, Blood Psalms, missed its October debut and was pushed to February 2022 because the department of trade, industry and competition failed to pay the millions due to the show in the country's broken film rebate scheme.

MultiChoice introduced DStv subscribers to Korean telenovelas ("K-drama") with tvN, kept losing DStv Premium subscribers, while M-Net brought pay-TV subscribers Harry and Meghan sit-down talk with Oprah.

The SABC that turned 85 completed its retrenchment plan getting rid of hundreds of workers after which the public broadcaster once again became embroiled in serious allegations of SABC News editorial interference. 

In 2021 fewer people than ever (down to 21% bothered to still pay a SABC TV Licence with plans to scrap it altogether and replace it with a new type of tax.

The SABC officially launched SABC Sport as a TV channel, while SuperSport did its best to try and bring live sports back this year and branched out into more school sports coverage.

Britbox SA and eMedia's eVOD both launched as two new video streaming services in South Africa in 2021 while ViacomCBS Networks Africa abruptly cancelled its MTV Africa Music Awards it tried to revive this year. 

The M-Net City channel changed to Me, Glow TV was removed from Openview but had to be returned after a court case, and StarSat shed more TV channels this year. 

The long-delayed completion of the switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting in South Africa was yet again postponed, with new warnings that suddenly switching off TV signals to millions of viewers who don't have set-top boxes to receive the new signals, will damage South Africa's TV ratings system.

Meanwhile worsening Eskom blackouts continued to have a debilitating impact during 2021 on TV ratings, damaging all broadcasters and advertisers with loadshedding that wiped millions of TV households from the national viewership data.

Moja Love (DStv 157) - which had to suspend Jub Jub on Uyajola 9/9 as its most-watched show after rape allegations - and Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) were the two most-watched pay-TV channels in South Africa in 2021. 

SABC1 remained the most-watched free-to-air TV channel. More South African TV news reporters were attacked and robbed this year than ever before.

South African viewers lost FOX after 11 years, The Bold and the Beautiful (again) and weather presenters on eNCA and eNuus. The ratings for the 17th season of Idols on Mzansi Magic plunged as Somizi Mhlongo exited as a judge after serious allegations of physical abuse.

We lost Africa's most influential woman in television, MultiChoice's content boss Aletta Alberts, to Covid, as well as producer-actor Shona Ferguson in July, and an unending TV treasure chest list of names gone too soon who have enriched and who were deeply woven into the tapestry of South Africa's TV industry. 

We lost icons from Franz Marx to Shaleen Surtie-Richards, with calls that more must be done to support and protect South African artists and performers while the South African government for another year refused to make the Performers' Protection Amendment Bill (PPAB) a law that would ensure that actors are paid residuals for TV rebroadcasts.

We said goodbye to LIVE AMP on SABC1 after 25 seasons, as well as the beloved TV news anchor Noxolo Grootboom who read her final TV news bulletin with even Cyril Ramaphosa moving his national address out of the way so that the nation could watch her swansong first. 

Jeremy Maggs, Jane Dutton and Uveka Rangappa left eNCA with no goodbye. 

South Africa's TV and film industry and film lost at least 18 669 jobs (59%) over the past year due to Covid. 

And in-between the tumult, a little film on TV about a friendly South African octopus won an Oscar.

Siyamthanda TV special from SABC Sport about Springbok captain Siya Kolisi to broadcast on SABC2 on 11 December, 'one of the most shocking interviews I've ever done,' says presenter Thomas Mlambo.

by Thinus Ferreira

SABC2 will broadcast Siyamthanda on Saturday 11 December at 18:30, a TV special from SABC Sport about the Springbok captain Siyamthanda "Siya" Kolisi's earlier life and his journey to the top of rugby.

The 48-minute TV special is a co-production between SABC Sport and Red Bull Media House, featuring people who have made a key contribution to his life.

In Siyamthanda, Siya Kolisi sits down with his close circle of friends and family to talk about his journey from the dusty streets of Zwide and Grey Port Elizabeth to leading the Springbok team to victory in the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Siyamthanda is anchored by SABC Sport presenter Thomas Mlambo who had spent the day with Siya Kolisi, his close friends and family, including teammate Bongi Mbonambi at 50 on Gugs in Gugulethu.

"It was one of the most open and in some ways 'shocking' interviews I've ever done because of what Siya reveals. I was genuinely shocked at how hard his life has been and what he has overcome; ultimately I was inspired," says Thomas Mlambo in a statement.

The TV special also touches on the more difficult elements of growing up in the township as well as the pressures of success and the responsibility Siya Kolisi assumed when he took on his role as captain of the South African national rugby team.

"I'm not perfect but I can't afford to disappoint society and the young children who look up to me," Siya Kolisi says in the Siyamthanda TV special.

"Representation is everything. I believe in shared leadership; I do not know everything. If I could change anything from when I was a kid, it's the mindset. That's where you either make it or don't make it."

SABC2 shows Muvhango in silence on Friday as the South African public broadcaster's TV channels experience a blackout on Saturday and viewers complain about shoddy quality of SABC Sport.

by Thinus Ferreira

Viewers had to watch Friday night's episode of Muvhango on mute after SABC2 broadcast the episode in silence, with the South African public broadcaster that on Saturday said it's TV channels are back on the air after an unexplained blackout, after which viewers slammed SABC Sport for the shoddy broadcast quality of a Bafana Bafana soccer match.

On Friday night viewers watching the Word of Mouth Pictures-produced weeknight soap on SABC2 had to watch Muvhango in silence when the volume disappeared five minutes after the start of the episode. 

The sound was gone for the whole Muvhango episode, without any explanation or apology from SABC2 for the technical mistake and with the entire episode that was shown on mute.

"For some reasons unknown to me, SABC2 just became 'mute' for the whole Muvhango episode," viewer Nxuba Rhudulu said on Twitter on Friday night.

"SABC2, please do something please," asked Geniva Molepo.

On Facebook Matsoko Wa Kgatla said "And we are watching Muvhango without sounds".

On Saturday morning after an unexplained blackout of the SABC's TV channels, the broadcaster said on the Twitter feeds of its SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 channels that "We apologise for the earlier blackout, however we are back". 

There's not been any explanation for what took the channels off air.

Later on Saturday afternoon, viewers complained about the very poor broadcast quality and the horribly inept standard of commentating of the SABC Sport channel's broadcast of the World Cup qualifier soccer match between South Africa and Ethiopia that took place in the Bahir Dar Stadium.

Many viewer flooded social media like Twitter with complaints on Saturday afternoon who were angry, frustrated and disappointed at the broadcast quality of SABC Sport, pointing out the shocking mistakes made by analysts, and slammed the subpar commentating.

Watching Bafana Bafana on SABC with their lame commentary, if that’s not torture, show me what is!😒😩

— Certified Donda Lover. (@thulasizwe) October 9, 2021

What is the SABC doing to us? 😭 #BafanaBafana pic.twitter.com/tu5k1UKbK9

— Aku. (@WedzyM) October 9, 2021

eMedia and the SABC silent after broken promise to announce a further 2 SABC channels for the Openview satellite TV service.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia Holdings and the South African public broadcaster failed to keep to a public promise the broadcasters made earlier this year to announce the addition of further SABC channels to eMedia's Openview satellite TV service.

In March this year, eMedia and the SABC added the public broadcaster's SABC Sport channel to eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite TV service as the first of 3 planned SABC TV channels to be placed on Openview.

Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, promised the media that "the two other SABC TV channels will be announced within the next 3 months and will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material".

It lead to speculation that the SABC might create and package a general entertainment TV channel like the now-defunct SABC Encore that was created for MultiChoice's DStv service with rebroadcasts of library series from the SABC archives.

By the end of June 2021 after the 3 months had passed, neither eMedia nor the SABC has said a word about the other two promised SABC channels for Openview. 

Since June - following eMedia and the SABC's failure to make their promised announcement - readers, Openview viewers, as well as a wide array of  people working in South Africa's TV and film industry at various broadcasters, have constantly been asking why eMedia and the SABC didn't make their promised Openview channels announcement.

Following the public announcement that created an expectation, but now led to an information vacuum, people are wondering what went wrong, if the channels' addition to Openview is still happening and are speculating and discussing the issue in an ongoing basis on social media.

eMedia was asked in a media query why eMedia and the SABC failed to make the announcement within the 3 months timeframe since March after it announced publicly that it would do, for any updates on what the channels are, when they would be added, or if the plans had changed.

eMedia didn't give any explanation for why the promise around an announcement about two additional SABC channels was broken and didn't give any new detail as to what's going on or went wrong. 

A spokesperson for eMedia did however confirm that that the addition of 2 further SABC channels for Openview is still definitely happening. There is no date update.

UPDATE Friday 10 September 2021: The article above has been updated to attribute the quote in the third paragraph to Ian Plaatjes as SABC COO, not Antonio Lee, eMedia COO.

ALSO READ: eMedia Investments' Openview adds SABC Sport, 19 SABC radio stations and 2 further SABC TV channels in 'ground-breaking' carriage agreement.

Disney sublicenses ESPN content to the South African public broadcaster as SABC Sport channel builds out programming to challenge MultiChoice's SuperSport.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Walt Disney Company has sublicensed some of its ESPN sports content to the South African public broadcaster that continues to build out the programming of its SABC Sport channel on digital terrestrial television (DTT).

The new contract will bring ESPN content, until now limited to MultiChoice's DStv and China's StarTimes and StarSat pay-TV services in South Africa and across Africa, to free-to-air DTT viewers, as well as to eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite service, and the TelkomONE subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) video streaming service.

As s customary, the SABC buried its news regarding a new contract with The Walt Disney Company and ESPN in a late Friday press release, limiting news media's ability and affinity to report on it.

On Friday after 17:00 the SABC and The Walt Disney Company Africa in a joint statement announced that they've signed a new distribution agreement for ESPN local and international sporting event, several of which will be broadcast live, news programming, as well as ESPN archive content that will get a free-to-air run.

"This agreement is going to add significant depth to our current offering on the SABC Sport channel," says Gary Rathbone, SABC Sport general manager.

"Our channel will now offer unrivalled content to our local sport fans seven days a week, thanks to ESPN's great boxing archive and film and documentary library."

"With the addition of long-awaited regular live boxing events, as well more live football, athletics and African basketball, it's clear that this partnership will deliver right across the board for our viewers."

"This partnership will not only give our viewers access to great sports content but will see the SABC Sport channel and our teams benefiting from the resources and experience that this collaboration with ESPN offers."

Kyle De Klerk, director of sports at The Walt Disney Company Africa, says "With this content agreement we are excited to not only be bringing ESPN's unprecedented and compelling sporting offering to new audiences, but to also be taking a great step in highlighting and celebrating some of the up and coming leagues and athletes from around this continent".

Christine Service, senior vice president and general manager of The Walt Disney Company Africa, says "We are delighted to be extending our relationship with the SABC to include ESPN, bringing another diversified and exciting brand from Disney's portfolio to local free-to-air audiences".

The ESPN content will be funneled immediately, from this weekend to SABC Sport, with two new ESPN-branded football slots that will be shown each Saturday and Sunday on SABC Sport at midday during the European football season.

This slot will offer viewers a live English Championship match on Saturdays at 13:30 and a Dutch Eredivisie game on Sundays at 12:15, as well as highlights from the United States' Major League Socer and premiere football news roundups from ESPN's magazine shows, including ESPN FC.

ESPN will show 4 live World Athletics events on SABC Sport, with the first that will be the U20 Championships in Nairobi, currently on air. 

Other events include the World Indoor Championships from Serbia (March 2022), World Race Walking Championships from Belarus (April 2022) and the World Championships from the USA (July 2022).

SABC Sport will also broadcast the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), with select BAL fixtures that will be shown on SABC Sport in 2022.

SABC Sport will also show live boxing events and programming in 2022, including over 150 hours of boxing content from ESPN's library, showcasing the greatest in boxing events, athletes and moments in the sport's history.

SABC shocks as public broadcaster parts ways with veteran sportscaster Robert Marawa; Vaylen Kirtley exits after 20 years to jump to Newzroom Afrika.

by Thinus Ferreira

As usual, since it's Friday, the SABC shocked when it suddenly announced that the South African public broadcaster has parted ways with the popular veteran sports presenter Robert Marawa whose Marawa Sport Worldwide show is apparently done and not returning to SABC radio, and with the popular TV presenter Vaylen Kirtley who is exiting after 2 decades with the SABC as she jumps to Newzroom Afrika.

Robert Marawa and his latest Marawa Sport Worldwide, has been hugely popular and a drawcard to bring large swathes of listeners to SABC radio stations, as has been previous programmes he fronted for the SABC on radio and television.

Likewise, Vaylen Kirtley has become a mainstain in the mornings on SABC2 and SABC News on Morning Live over years, while she also appeared on other SABC Sport programming. 

Insiders told TVwithThinus on Friday that Vaylen Kirtley is joining the South African TV news channel Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405). Newzroom Afrika has not yet made any announcements regarding her hiring.

Robert Marawa on social media on Friday said that he has once again "been shown the door by the SABC and unceremoniously told not to do my last show tonight".

Robert Marawa said that "after serving the public broadcaster through time, I am sent yet another text from a person in an acting position informing" him that his last show won't be broadcast on Friday after the issuing of a press release by the SABC, with the SABC apparently fearing what Robert Marawa might say in his final show.

In a terse statement lacking transparency and giving no reasons at all for either departure, the SABC, mere minutes before noon on Friday, announced that Robert Marawa and Vaylen Kirtley are no longer with the public broadcaster.

The statement contained no quotes attributed to either Robert Marawa or Vaylen Kirtley and their exit comes as the SABC is trying to bolster the content and talent of its SABC Sport brand and digital terrestrial TV channel run by SABC Sport boss Gary Rathbone.

"The SABC would like to announce the departure of renowned sports broadcasters Robert Marawa and Vaylen Kirtley," the SABC statement reads.

"Robert Marawa departs following the conclusion of the MSW (Marawa Sport Worldwide) which Robert Marawa presented on both Metro FM and Radio 2000 simultaneously."

"Vaylen Kirtley presented the sports segment of the SABC's television current affairs show, Morning Live and was also an anchor for SABC Sport programming. She joined the SABC 20 years ago and started with junior sports programmes at the time."

"The SABC would like to wish Robert Marawa and Vaylen Kirtley well in their future endeavours and appreciates their contribution to SABC Sport programming."

South African public broadcaster does a cobbled-together 'official' launch of SABC Sport as a TV channel complete with wooden benches on astro turf; says free sports could help drive digital migration push to DTT.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Thursday night the South African public broadcaster suddenly announced that it is "officially" launching its 24-hour SABC Sport channel at an amateur-looking launch event at its Auckland Park headquarters where a scattering of socially-distanced guests sat on wooden benches and astro turf.

Thursday night's "official" launch comes after SABC Sport had already been broadcasting "unofficially" for a while on eMedia Investments' Openview satellite TV platform and the SABC's digital terrestrial television (DTT) offering.

SABC Sport launched on 15 April 2021. On Thursday afternoon at 14:30 the SABC suddenly said in a belated statement that the public broadcaster would be "hosting a live broadcast of the official launch of its sports channel" at 19:00 on Thursday.

With little warning to media about it except for a few selected "outlets" as SABC chairman Bongumusa Makhathini referred to them, the SABC on Thursday night held an in-person "launch event" that it didn't bother to tell the majority of media about - similar to when it launched its latest version of the SABC News channel.

Neither the SABC's corporate affairs division under Gugu Ntuli, nor SABC Sport, afterwards issued any press release, press pack, basic channel logo, scheduling or anchor information, or any press release about what was said at the "official" launch event of the SABC Sport channel that a lot of media by Friday afternoon simply ignored.  

At the SABC's hagiographic SABC Sport official launch event on Thursday night some socially-distanced attendees sat on wooden benches on green astro turf and were served snacks by wandering waiters while presenters Vaylen Kirtley, Thomas Mlambo and Owen Hannie spoke from a stage.

SABC Sport has been available already on the SABC's DTT service, through e.tv's Openview decoder on channel 124, as well as on Telkom's TelkomONE video streaming service. 

SABC Sport is notably absent from MultiChoice's DStv and from StarTimes' StarSat satellite pay-TV services, with the SABC that wants to create and build its own televised sports channel brand similar to MultiChoice's long-running SuperSport brand.

Thursday night's "official" announcement tele-launch also included the announcement of the second team squad for the controversial Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that is forging ahead despite intense criticism given the global Covid-19 pandemic and the rampant ongoing spread of the virus in Japan. 

Other upcoming content on the SABC Sport channel besides the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games would feature friendly matches of South Africa's football team Bafana Bafana, as well as Premier Soccer League (PSL) games, the Confederation Cup, the Carling Black Label Cup, Formula E, the French Top 14, and also boxing matches and South African cricket, athletics and tennis.

"With the analogue switch-off planned for April 2022, the SABC believes that free sports content could be a significant driver in the final push for digital migration to DTT and satellite," Bongumusa Makhathini said.

"SABC Sport is a centre-piece in the SABC turn-around and renewal," he said.

Gary Rathbone, SABC Sport general manager, said that "Since the channel became operational in April this year, its audience figures have been positive, with latest TAMS figure showing a total reach of over 2 million, a 5% share of the national television market".

"On Openview alone, the channel has established itself amongst the top 10 on the bouquet, with a total reach of over 1.4 million, representing a 24% share of the Openview market. This is really positive start for an exciting new Sport channel that South Africans will be able to access without needing to pay a subscription."

Gary Rathbone said that SABC Sport will try to have broad sports content in order to speak to as many sports fans as possible.

"There also needs to be a mix between international content and local content," he said. He said SABC Sport is working on broadcasting "kasi-sports, school sports, women sports".

About the ongoing and latest fight with MultiChoice and SuperSport around the sub-licensing of sports content, for instance the SABC that said it won't show the upcoming Springboks and Lions rugby tour, Gary Rathbone told Vaylen Kirtley that "more should be done to help facilitate that access to that content on our platforms".

"We're not looking to try and acquire it in some sort of way and undervalue it in terms of the people that do put the money in, the hard-earned money, but there is ways and means to make it shareable, to make it accessible, to make it equitable in a way that helps us to grow out brand, helps us to commercialise the business that we're in and go out and buy better content and make better programmes."

A fawning Thomas Mlambo "interviewed" Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies who bloomed under the studio lights as a wannabe TV presenter.

There was no semblance from Thomas Mlambo of even trying to ask kind of pertinent questions to Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams about the delay with DTT and the damage it's causing to the broadcaster, the SABC's struggle with sports rights and ongoing lack of government funding to pay for it, or her department's failures in helping the broadcaster with solving sport content issues.

eMedia Investments' Openview adds SABC Sport, 19 SABC radio stations and 2 further SABC TV channels in 'ground-breaking' carriage agreement.

by Thinus Ferreira

Openview is adding the South African public broadcaster's SABC Sport channel, along with its 19 SABC radio stations, as well as a further two as-yet-unannounced SABC TV channels, to its free-to-air satellite service in a new channel carriage agreement that eMedia Investments and the SABC calls "ground-breaking".

While eMedia Investments' Openview has carried SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 for the past few years until now it has been without payment. The new, expanded channel carriage agreement will bring more content to the Openview service whilst creating a new content revenue stream for the SABC.

Notwithstanding this agreement at the platform level, the SABC's TV channels and radio stations will continue to compete for audience and advertising with the various eMedia-owned TV channels and services, similar to the way that eMedia and the SABC are currently competitors on the analogue network.

Through this channel carriage agreement that was announced on Thursday night at a media event in Hyde Park, Johannesburg and broadcast live on the eNCA and SABC News channels, the SABC is officially entering the free-to-air satellite TV market that which will supplement the SABC's channel footprint on digital terrestrial television (DTT), as well as on streaming platforms like Telkom ONE.

The SABC's channels are already carried on satellite pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' StarSat under so-called "must-carry" regulations but in exchange for bigger universal access the broadcaster isn't getting paid for that carriage.

First among the three new SABC TV channels that will be added to Openview is SABC Sport that will launch on Openview soon on channel 124, with eMedia saying it will announce a launch date within the next month. 

In a SABC Sport channel sizzle reel shown at the event the public broadcaster teased coverage of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as well as international soccer, South African rugby, local cricket and boxing coverage. 

SABC Sport will also be distributed simultaneously across Openview, DTT, Telkom ONE and other streaming platforms.

The other two SABC TV channels that will be announced within the next 3 months will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material and might likely include a general entertainment channel like the now-defunct SABC Encore channel that the SABC supplied to DStv as part of a carriage contract that ended.

eMedia and the SABC says in a joint statement that "Openview and the SABC believe that this new agreement will expedite digital migration from analogue-only households to digital broadcasting platforms with more compelling free-to-air channels and content".

"Together with the DTT platform, Openview provides audiences with a free high-definition (HD) alternative to both analogue terrestrial and pay satellite options."

Openview, which has grown its availability to 2.3 million TV households so far, and the SABC, say that the "ground-breaking new distribution agreement will enhance both companies in the free-to-air category of television broadcasting" and that their collaboration "signals a seismic shift in the country's broadcasting landscape".

"With this agreement, the SABC ensures that its content, in all its formats, continues to resonate with the prescripts of its public mandate, and more so in providing universal access to credible content."

"The agreement also guarantees HD broadcast quality and free access to the SABC’s television network wherever you are in South Africa. For Openview, this agreement enhances its strength in the direct-to-home (DTH) space with additional content and a solid binding collaboration with the public broadcaster."

Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, says the carriage agreement "is an exciting development for both the SABC and ourselves. The agreement ushers in a new level of collaboration between a private free-to-air satellite platform and public free-to-air broadcast services".

"There is no doubt it will boost the offering of Openview and will extend the SABC’s audience reach. We can now offer our Openview audience additional quality content and access to digital broadcast radio in the widest variety of languages possible in South Africa. We hope this is the start of a stronger and more fruitful relationship between Openview and the SABC".

Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, says "This agreement enables the SABC to grow its channel offering and reach into the digital broadcasting space with three additional HD television channels".

"The agreement also enhances the distribution of SABC radio stations to create an increased value proposition for our radio advertising inventory."

SABC focusing on local South African boxing, tennis and athletics to provide content for SABC Sport as public broadcaster now tries to create its own sporting space without competing against SuperSport.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African public broadcaster and its new SABC Sport boss Gary Rathbone is focusing on local South African boxing, tennis and athletics as the main sporting codes it wants to revive to provide content for its 24-hour SABC Sport channel as SABC Sport carves out its own sporting space where it doesn't compete with SuperSport.

The Sunday Times reports that Gary Rathbone in an interview with the newspaper said that the SABC is looking to carve out its own sports content space where it doesn't compete with the pay-TV operator MultiChoice and SuperSport.

"I'm targeting boxing, it's a key part of my strategy. I would say it's right at the top of my in-tray of to-do things. We will start building a formidable boxing strategy for the broadcaster that can really make us the home of boxing," Gary Rathbone said in the interview.

"I think the other two sports we have an opportunity for are athletics and tennis."

According to Gary Rathbone the ongoing evolution in technology has made it possible to lower production costs as far as sports content is concerned.

Coronavirus: SABC sets up disaster recovery site with Outside Broadcast vans; production of soaps and scripted shows shuttered; news and actuality to continue during 21-day national lockdown.

by Thinus Ferreira

As South Africa enters a period of 21-days of a national lockdown the SABC has ordered all of its locally-produced soaps and drama series to shut down production although they will all remain on-air with pre-recorded episodes, while SABC news and actuality programmes will also continue on television and radio.

As the country tries to curb the rapid spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the country, the SABC has set up a disaster recovery site away from its Auckland Park headquarters in Johannesburg, consisting out of Outside Broadcast (OB) vans.

This site will take over in case of emergency to ensure that SABC TV and radio broadcasts continue uninterrupted. Two more studios at Auckland Park have been reserved for use by the department of education from which educational programming will be produced during the national lockdown period.

"Our logistical services department will continue to sanitise SABC radio studios between programmes as the crew switches over to reduce the risk of any contamination," says the broadcaster.

"During the switch-over, mechanisms have been put in place to allow cleaning teams enough time to do a thorough sanitation process."

"The SABC is working tirelessly to ensure that its core business of delivering on news and current affairs programmes as well as TV and radio programming will continue under stringent conditions, with alternative broadcast plans in place.

In terms of studio interviews the SABC has taken a decision to not allow any studio interviews during this period but use various alternative ways to communicate with newsmakers."

The SABC says that it has told production companies producing soaps, other drama series and scripted series to shut down. This includes Uzalo, Generations and Skeem Saam on SABC1 and 7de Laan, Muvhango and Lithapo on SABC2.

"Currently the SABC has enough broadcast stock during the lockdown and will continue to entertain millions of South Africans with their favourite soaps," says the SABC.

SABC1 will broadcast new pre-recorded episodes of Daily Thetha until 9 April 2020, after which it will switch to replacement content. Production has shut down of the just-restarted YO.TV on SABC1 that will show a mix of pre-recorded programming and replacement content.

SABC2 and SABC3 will continue to broadcast pre-recorded episodes of its youth blocks Hectic Nine 9 and Hectic on 3.

The SABC says that all SABC radio drama productions have shuttered. "More focus will be on increasing curriculum-based educational programmes to support learners during this time and creating more captivating programmes to keep listeners entertained."

The SABC has also shut down all SABC Sport TV productions that are being replaced on schedules with licensed international sports content. Midday programming is being replaced with educational content. The SABC will continue radio sports talk shows with safety precautions in place.

"As a public service broadcaster, it is important that the SABC meets both its public mandate and organisational objectives. This means that we need to balance our obligation to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees and service providers, as well as maintaining business continuity, as our services are critical to the South African public," says Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO.

Ntabiseng Tau, Muvhango senior creative director, said the SABC2 started to shut down this week on Tuesday. "We've shot a couple of scenes on Tuesday morning to kind of safeguard where we are in production, in terms of deliverables and to have things that are on air."

Nandipha Pantsi, Generations The Legacy spokesperson, says "We are taking the current crisis seriously and are doing everything in our power to mitigate against it. However, we do have enough material to air".

"We have enough episodes to stay on air during the lockdown period. Cast and crew will be paid as per usual."

In a statement the SABC1 drama series Skeem Saam says "The safety and health of our crew and cast is the biggest priority. For our fans though, the entertainment and drama will continue as per usual in the signature Skeem Saam way so they don't need to worry about their daily dose".

Veteran South African sports commentator Duane Dell'Oca leaves the SABC.

The veteran South African sports commentator Duane Dell'Oca has left the beleaguered SABC after 15 years where the veteran commentator covered a wide range of sports, especially football, for the South African public broadcaster.

KickOff first reported Duane Dell'Oca's departure from the SABC.

Duane Dell'Oca did sports commentating for the SABC on a wide range of sports, especially the Olympic Games, South Africa's national football team, Bafana Bafana, and Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches.

Duane Dell'Oca also presented a bi-weekly show on SAfm before Thabiso Mosia took over, and was a commentator on SABC1's weeklt football show, SoccerZone.

The SABC downsizes its unfunded digital TV dream for DTT from 18 to these 9 TV channels.

The cash-strapped SABC has now further downsized its lofty and over-promised TV channels offering for South Africa's long-stalled switch to digital television, with the South African public broadcaster that is toning down its envisioned TV channels collection from 18 to just a possible 9.

In September 2011 SABC executives and the SABC board told parliament that the SABC's offering for digital terrestrial television (DTT) will consist of 18 TV channels: 17 TV channels (including SABC1, SABC2, SABC3) and one interactive video service channel, as well as 18 SABC radio stations plus Channel Africa.

For DTT the SABC also promised parliament multiple times in the past that new services like closed captioning (on-screen subtitles) in multiple languages that can be accessed by the set top box's remote control, multiple language soundtracks with up to 4 different audio tracks per programme for certain shows, audio description to provide contextual information in programmes, as well as some interactive applications.

After a decade of working towards DTT, out of the SABC's envisioned DTT plans, only SABC News (DStv 404) and SABC Encore (DStv 156) have so far materialised, both carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform as part of an exclusive channels carriage contract with Naspers' pay-TV arm.

On Tuesday the SABC told parliament that the broadcaster that is hovering on the brink of financial collapse, has now downscaled its proposed DTT channels offering to just 9 TV channels.

These envisioned additional new channels don't have any funding yet and won't materialise without cash that will have to come from somewhere and that the SABC hasn't currently budgeted for.

The SABC now wants its DTT channels offering to be SABC1, SABC2, SABC3, SABC News, a SABC Parliamentary channel, SABC Education, SABC Health, SABC Sport and SABC History.

"For the SABC Parliamentary channel our intention isn't to have it as just a feed but we are going to make sure that it has presenters and it is interactive and actually deals with the issues of the day. So the only cost that we anticipate seeing there might be on-air talent," said Nomsa Philiso, the group executive for SABC television.

"For the SABC Education channel we're looking for partnerships and in this instance the conversations have already started with a funder, however we still need to start a conversation with the department of education."

"Similarly, with the SABC Health channel we want to be able to partner with corporate and we are in the process of trying to find out how that can be done," said Nomsa Philiso.

"From a SABC Sport channel point of view this can only be done in the form of a partnership as well."

"Depending on which DTT channel launches first in terms of how we're going to phase this - because if we have SABC Sport as a high definition (HD) channel we may not be able to have the 9th channel but if we have it as a standard definition (SD) channel we may then be able to do another channel - so we are anticipating that we will have a 9th channel which is going to be the SABC History channel."

"SABC History is a channel that will give us the opportunity to really contribute in terms of what are South Africans, who are we and what is our history."


SABC's DTT dream has no funds
Nomsa Philiso said "this dream here is currently unfunded but we do believe that corporate South Africa will rise up and really partner with us in terms of the channels that we would like to see on the digital platform".

A single linear TV channel requires 8 760 hours of content per year.

The SABC's reworked DTT offering plan has now dumped plans for the envisioned regionalised channels SABC4 catering to the north of the country and SABC5 that would have catered for audiences in the south.

The SABC has also quietly shelved its plan announced in April 2016 for 3 language based DTT TV channels - a channel for Afrikaans viewers, a Sotho channel catering for Sesotho, Setswana and Sepedi languages; and a Nguni focused channel catering to Zulu, Xhosa, Siswati and Ndebele viewers.


SABC 'revitalizing' sliding SABC2, SABC3 as e.tv readies OpenNews
The SABC that is under pressure to maintain its TV audience share, told parliament that the existing SABC2 and SABC3 channels have seen their audiences and share continue to slide the past year but that SABC2 - that has gone through 6 big schedule changes since 2014 - is looking at revitalizing some prime time shows that is showing audience erosion to lure viewers back.

The SABC is also yet again repositioning SABC3 this year, this time in the "premium space" and will focus on reality, drama, emotainment magazine shows and talk shows for the "mobile audience" that is perceived to be DStv viewers but who would watch SABC3.

Meanwhile the SABC's free-to-air rival e.tv is forging ahead with its DTT plans, with eMedia Investments' rebranded direct-to-home (DTH) and free-to-air satellite TV service Openview launching its new 2-hour block of Afrikaans content on its eExtra channel on 1 October.

This will include the new daily half hour Afrikaans TV news bulletin Nuusdag that will also launch on 1 October and that will be available to DStv and StarSat subscribers since the eExtra channel is carried on both of these platforms.

Meanwhile OpenNews as a new DTT free-to-air TV news channel and e.tv's own in-house rival to eNCA (DStv 403) supplied to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform is set to launch on 1 November on the Openview platform.