SABC reduced to eunuchs at ICASA hearings

The first round of public presentations and submissions regarding ICASA's Draft Sports Broadcasting Service Amendment Regulations left the SABC's sports broadcast reputation sprawled on the floor. Of all the submissions witnessed, the decisive, Deontay Wilder-ian, blow came from renowned sports industry researcher David Sidenberg, who pulled no punches.

WHILE public focus was firmly fixed on the SABC’s wrangle to get sub-licensing rights from SuperSport to broadcast the Cricket World Cup, the public broadcaster was taking a battering from presenters in Irene on Monday.

The SABC released a statement saying they and SuperSport were “pleased to inform the South African public that they have concluded an agreement for the SABC to broadcast the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.”

“This follows extensive negotiations between the parties,” the statement further said.

“Some of these fixtures will be broadcast on a live basis and others delayed and via highlights programmes.”

The public hearings on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA’s) Draft Sports Broadcasting Services Amendment Regulations (2018), chaired by Palesa Kadi, began at African Pride Irene Country Lodge with some vigour.

Major local sports federations as well as some international sports bodies such as the International Cricket Council (ICC), FIFA and the International Olympic Committee have opposed the proposed amendments. 

ICASA is updating legislation regarding free-to-air versus subscription broadcasters, with a strong emphasis on doing away with exclusive rights-holding privileges (for sports of national interest) that paid subscription channel SuperSport currently enjoys and unbundling the rights to allow for competitive balance in the market.

BMI’s David Sidenberg gave a comprehensive study of the sports sponsorship market and the value of broadcasting in the sporting economy. He had scathing analysis of the public broadcaster’s capacity to fulfill the requirements proposed by ICASA’s regulations.

“The top five sporting codes in this country (soccer, rugby, cricket, athletics and swimming) get more than 70-percent of all the broadcast hours attributed to sport,” said Sidenberg.

“And if you look at the SABC, 66-percent of all the hours they attribute to sport goes to one sport only: soccer. And even within that one sport only, they are still not satisfying the contractual obligations with SuperSport of showing all the games that the rights made available to them. 

“That’s a problem in terms of the issue of capacity. Since the [present ICASA] regulations came into effect in 2010, the SABC has shown generally less than 2, 000 hours of sport per year compared to the 90, 000 hours that are currently being broadcast on our screens. 

“In fact, if the IAAF and Super Rugby were to be broadcast live in full according to the Draft Regulations Category A would account for more hours than the SABC gives to all sport in any given year. That’s cause for concern in terms of capacity issues."

“Those sports that aren’t soccer and aren’t being covered, are getting less and less coverage on the national broadcaster, despite the 2010 regulations, and we have to ask why?”

Sidenberg noted the steady decline of the broadcast of “minority sports” on the public broadcaster, to such a nadir that the iconic Two Oceans marathon was not televised this year. 

“It was not offered any money. It was simply ignored,” he said.

“We have a women’s Netball World Cup, which we have qualified for and will be hosting in 2023. SABC has shown little or no regard or interest in covering these events. Some of them, like Banyana Banyana, who are heading off to their own World Cup, for free and the SABC still didn’t take it. Why are we not up in arms? Surely they are important?”

The proposed regulations have already been opposed by Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza, who said, post the publishing of the draft regulation, the PSL would have to “shut down” if they were passed as is.

When SuperSport bought the broadcast rights for PSL matches, they all but changed the broadcast landscape in South Africa as a whole, not just for football. This was a prominent example in Sidenberg’s case against the proposed regulations. 

According to BMI’s research, the SABC went from televising 384 hours of soccer in 2006 and 422 hours in 2007 to 1, 252 in 2017. Au contraire, SuperSport displayed 33, 596 hours (nearly every game possible). 

Sidenberg noted that the 2007 deal, which was reportedly valued at R1-billion at the time (climbing to R2-billion at renewal) meant everyone won at the end of the day, including various sponsors such as Absa, MTN, Nedbank and Telkom, who pocketed more bang for their buck as a result.

“Since the PSL rights moved from exclusively SABC to SuperSport, the media returns have grown exponentially for sponsors” Sidenberg said. 

“Whereas they used to get four or five hundred million (rands) tops, they are now getting R2-billion in media exposure, which obviously impact on how much someone will spend to get a return on media investment. 

“There is a direct correlation between the amount of broadcast hours and the amount of sponsorship spend – revenue – that sports federations have at their disposal. 

“What we thought was the ‘One Evil’ is actually the greatest case against non regulation that we have before us. The irony is that every year since losing the rights to SuperSport, the SABC has shown more hours of PSL soccer." 

“It’s the old story of the divorced husband that lost his wife and only found out how good she was after she left him.”

However, the public broadcaster weren’t the only ones that came in for a shellacking. The regulations were criticised for its vague terminology. For instance, in the proposed amendment of Regulation 5 – compulsory listed national sporting events or codes for free-to-air broadcasters to display full coverage – the IAAF is listed as the 11th item.

“There were clarity issues in 2010 that still to this day have not been cleaned up,” said Sidenberg.

“One for example is the listing of ‘International Boxing’. To this day no one knows what international boxing means nor do they know what ‘National Netball’ means. 

“We have to tighten those things and be more specific. IAAF is not an event, it’s an entire federation.”

The PSL will get a chance to state its case on Wednesday (May 29, 2019) while the SABC and Multichoice will present their submissions on Friday (May 31, 2019). 

Sibusiso Mjikeliso

I'll be covering the hearings all week, posting an update daily. Follow me on twitter @sbu_mjikeliso for more info (and hopefully less blurry pics). I write in personal capacity, just for the F of it really, because we all deserve to know what the heck is going on. If you appreciate this, I appreciate you and would love it if you shared it with your friends. If not, you've done well to get this far down the page, which, in itself is a compliment, so good on ya!