SABC Strike Deal With Multichoice to Bring Cricket World Cup Into All South African Homes

• The SABC has negotiated a deal to screen all of the Proteas' games as well as the semi-final and final
• Negotiations had previously stalled but a sub-licensing agreement has been reached with the broadcaster
• The Proteas begin their Cricket World Cup campaign on October 7 against Sri Lanka

Cricket fans without the means to purchase live sports are rejoicing.

The Cricket World Cup will be freely available to terrestrial viewers after the SABC secured a deal to broadcast key games throughout the tournament.

A similar standoff between the entities was seen prior to the Rugby World Cup but in the end, a deal has been struck for the good of the sporting public.

The SABC has argued that it was of national interest to broadcast an international event of this magnitude featuring one of South Africa’s most beloved sporting teams.

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Much in the same vein as the rugby deal, SABC viewers can access the matches for free, but OpenView viewers have not been factored into the deal.

OpenView is owned by eMedia, which is a private broadcaster and a separate entity to the state funded corporation. The SABC claimed to have attempted to incorporate eMedia in the deal, as explained by My Broadband.

“To mitigate the block out of the cricket on Openview, the SABC approached eMedia to jointly acquire the Cricket World Cup 2023 rights from MultiChoice to ensure all eMedia Openview customers are able to view these games. “Unfortunately, eMedia has not agreed to this.” stated the SABC.

SABC and eMedia are both pursuing complaints made to the Competition Commission as well as legal action relating to the Rugby World Cup, respectively.

In a statement published by AdvancedTelevision, eMedia CEO Khalik Sherrif said:

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“The anticompetitive action is nothing short of domination in trying to prescribe to the free-to-air partner on how to use its broadcasting rights. We believe the action should be strongly condemned and opposed."

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Sport Brief recently published a breakdown of what to expect from the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

The 10-team Cricket World Cup will give every participating nation a chance to test themselves against one another in a round-robin format.

South Africa is ranked fourth in the world, and if they can translate that to a log finish, they will be in line for a first semi-final since 2015.