SABC up in arms over PSL, Supersport

According to IOL, the “shock announcement” that the PSL “has struck a deal worth more than R1 billion over five years with SuperSport International, giving the pay channel exclusive TV rights to all PSL fixtures” is the “culmination of a simmering war with the SABC”, which has held the rights “since the PSL's inception nine seasons ago”.

The SABC press statement continues as follows:

Mpofu continued: “The simple truth is that these rights are the subject of a dispute currently in arbitration between the SABC and PSL. The arbitration proceedings were postponed while the arbitrator was deciding the SABC's opposed application to include the fact that the PSL has not conducted itself in good faith in this matter. The arbitrator last Monday gave his judgment in favour of the SABC's application. The matter will now proceed on the broadened terms of reference and pleadings.

“Should the SABC be successful in the arbitration, which we are confident, will be the case, then the ‘deal' with Supersport will be nullified. Even if the Supersport deal were not null and void, the PSL would still be obliged to offer the rights to the SABC to exercise its right to match the Supersport offer in terms of the contract between the SABC and the PSL.”

Added Mpofu: “The public must be patient and rest assured that the SABC will pursue its rights and the public's interests vigorously. Nobody must be fooled into thinking that this matter is over. In fact the arbitration process, which both parties submitted to, has not yet started to deal with the merits of the case. No amount of smoke or mirrors or subterfuge will change this fact. The PSL/Supersport ‘deal' only exists in the world of fantasy and wishful thinking.”

News24 reports that “[i]t has been suggested that Government intervention is imminent to quell a dispute with far-reaching implications for South African soccer, the 2010 World Cup and the very fabric of life among South Africa's 45 million plus population.”