South African pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV has rubbished claims by the SABC that the country’s public-service broadcaster has struck a rights deal for coverage of South Africa’s national football teams, including the senior men’s team, known as Bafana Bafana.
The SABC yesterday (Wednesday) announced that it had agreed a rights deal with the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) to run for three years, from 2015 to 2017, covering all national men’s and women’s team home games as well as the men’s U-20 and U-23 teams on television and radio platforms.
However, Siyaya, which was unveiled last year as the new exclusive rights-holder for South Africa national team games over six years, from 2015 to 2020, has angrily denied the claims by the SABC.
“The SABC does not hold any of the broadcasting rights to Bafana matches, and therefore cannot claim otherwise,” Siyaya said. “Any position taken by the SABC that it holds the Bafana Bafana broadcast rights is false and misleading. Siyaya TV is the sole and exclusive owner of these rights, in terms of its signed contract with SAFA.”
When Siyaya acquired the rights last year, the company said that it would work with other broadcasters, including the SABC, to arrange free-to-air coverage of some matches.
Siyaya founder Aubrey Tau said that his company had approached the SABC two months ago, but added that the SABC had “refused to deal with Siyaya on the matter.”
He added: “Siyaya has since not heard directly from the SABC, but has in the meantime been in talks with SAFA regarding the possible granting of free-to-air broadcast rights to the SABC, and is at the same time also engaged with e.tv in similar discussions. Siyaya has made no commitments to and signed no contracts with any other broadcasters regarding the soccer broadcasting rights, and remains the sole and exclusive owner of these rights at this point in time.”
In a separate joint statement, Siyaya and SAFA said: “SAFA wishes to place on record that Siyaya TV is and will remain a long-term strategic broadcast partner of SAFA. We emphatically reject any speculation or statements to the contrary. The partnership between the two parties has enabled SAFA to take its broadcast platform to an entirely new level, which will now enable soccer-loving fans greater access to the beautiful game.”