Sport broadcasting rights regulations: where to from now?

The feeling among the industry watchers is that the Government is trying to nationalise the sports broadcasting rights, an extremely lucrative business that pitted the SABC against SuperSport over the Premier Soccer League (PSL) broadcasting deal last year, and which many believe was one of the main reasons that paved the way for CEO Dali Mpofu to lose his job.

It is understood that the Randburg-based organisation paid close to R2 billion to PSL to secure the broadcasting deal, while the SABC, which was accused of ‘negotiating in bad faith' and ‘taking those rights for granted' as a public broadcaster, was only offering R350 million.

At that time, some ANC insiders branded the PSL an ‘unpatriotic' organisation for sacrificing the public interest over capitalist greed.

New ICASA regulations

Earlier this month, ICASA gave notice that it intends making regulations in terms of sections 60(1) and 60(2) of the Electronic Communication Act, known as the EC Act.

Section 60(1) states: “Subscription broadcasting services may not acquire exclusive rights that prevent or hinder the free-to-air broadcasting of national sporting events, as identified in the public interest from time to time, by the Authority [ICASA], after consultation with the Minister and the Minister of Sport and in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the Authority.”

Section 60(2) warns: “In the event of a dispute arising concerning subsection (1), any party may notify the Authority of the dispute in writing and such dispute must be resolved on an expedited basis by the Authority in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the Authority.”

The feeling among delegates attending last night's discussion was that the new regulations are intended to protect the public interest and will be more favourable to sponsors of the events, decreasing the value of those rights and delivering a huge blow to broadcasters with no FTA (free-to-air) licences.

For example, the Union Cricket Board (UCB) cannot go directly to M-Net to negotiate the sale of the broadcasting cricket rights, if M-Net cannot guarantee that those games will be seen by everyone.

Can't fight it in open court

The worse part of this is that there is no way one can fight it in an open court because the regulations have already been gazetted. What is needed right now is the written submissions raised by the discussion paper, and ICASA will take it to the next level.

However, some delegates have objected to the Annexure A containing the national sporting events, as set out in the regulation 4 of the Sports Broadcasting Rights Regulations of 2003 (page 33).

This Annexure 4 list, they say, must be repealed and replaced by a sport-code driven list at local level (soccer, rugby, cricket, netball, athletics and so on), instead of the Summer Olympic Games, Olympic Games, All Africa Games, FIFA World Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, IRB Rugby World Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup. And the list must defined by the national team.

Some events cited in that list go beyond the control of SA. An example is the African Soccer Champions League, which falls under the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“CAF cannot wait for a permission of SA authorities to negotiate broadcasting deals with SuperSport for example,” said one delegate, Freddy Magkato, of ASA.

SABC needs to fulfill its promise

And many delegates said that some emphasis needs to be made in terms of the SABC fulfilling its promise that it will broadcast all these games and the quality of that broadcast must be impeccable.

The regulations are also a wake-up call to the authorities that the SABC must be protected at all costs, drawing fire and anger from rivals that the public broadcaster is being given an unfair advantage.

For more information, go to www.icasa.org.za or email Sekgoela Joel Sekgoela at . The closing date for written submissions is Friday, 7 November 2008, by no later than 4pm. All submissions should be sent to Nozipho Mvulane at Private Bag X10002, Sandton 2146.