The South African Football Association’s new media rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV would appear to be in doubt after public-service broadcaster the SABC questioned the validity of reports that the agreement had been finalised.
The SABC held a meeting with the association yesterday (Monday) to clarify reports over the weekend that Siyaya had struck a six-year rights deal, from 2015-16 to 2020-21. SABC, which has a deal that will run until April 30, 2015, described the reports of the deal as “allegations from newspapers” following the meeting on Monday.
“We are glad we have resolved the matter,” SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng said. “It is true that those were just allegations from newspapers. We from SABC… want to have a long relationship with SAFA. People should know that we are talking about sport of national interest. Most of the time when we negotiate we bear in mind that we cater for our own audience, and sport of national interest is key for SABC.”
Motsoeneng added: “It is only the SABC who reach more than 26 million daily. So it is important that we as the SABC we make sure those rights are within the SABC. We are going to compete with other broadcasters, but our view is that those sports of national interest should be broadcast on SABC platform.”
The association said that the two parties had met to “discuss the partnership that it established many years ago and to iron out some matters relating to media reports that arose over the past weekend.”
However, the association did not confirm or deny claims that the deal has been done, but on Monday, the governing body’s head of communications, Dominic Chimhavi, told the SAPA press agency: “Everything you read in the reports about the SAFA and Siyaya deal is true. When the current contract with SABC ends, the deal with Siyaya will begin. The SABC contract ends at the end of April 2015.”
The association added after the meeting: “The meeting resolved that SAFA and the SABC will establish two groups to discuss matters of operational and legal concern to both parties. The teams will commence their discussions… to ensure that the relationship remains on solid ground.”