SABC to air Cricket World Cup after all

The SABC will air matches from the ICC Cricket World Cup after it reached a sublicensing deal with SuperSport parent MultiChoice Group.

The public broadcaster made the surprise announcement late on Thursday.

The sudden turn of events ends a “lengthy” negotiation period, which earlier this week included a public spat where each party blamed the other for a breakdown in negotiations.

“Both parties have reached an agreement that allows the SABC to fulfil its public service mandate of broadcasting sports of national interest as well as ensuring that all cricket fans enjoy the much-anticipated world spectacle,” the SABC said in a statement.

“The SABC will broadcast all South African games, including the semi-final, final and closing ceremony,” it said.

Sublicensing negotiations between the SABC and MultiChoice for the Cricket World Cup games followed a pattern similar to the talks they had over the Rugby World Cup rights. Those also ended in last-minute agreements.

As with the rugby rights, the cricket matches will not be broadcast on the SABC channels carried by eMedia’s Openview free-to-air satellite platform.

Read: SABC decries Cricket World Cup sublicensing costs

“The SABC has formally lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission regarding this behaviour by MultiChoice. To mitigate the block out of the cricket on Openview, the SABC has approached eMedia to jointly acquire the Cricket World Cup 2023 rights from MultiChoice to ensure all Openview customers are able to view these games,” the SABC said. “Unfortunately, eMedia has not agreed to this.”  — © 2023 NewsCentral Media

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