JOHANNESBURG– South Africa’s Sports and Recreation Minister, Tokozile Xasa, is expected to convene a meeting with the country’s public broadcaster and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in the coming week over the broadcaster’s decision not to air PSL matches on radio.
Millions of fans were disappointed when they could not follow last Saturday’s opening match of the new PSL season between Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs on radio. However, the public will be able to view PSL matches on the television channels of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
SABC Chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini said the broadcaster had talks with the PSL but decided the broadcasting rights cost too much.
He said: When you look at the cost of sports rights, they have been escalating beyond inflation and it has become unmanageable and unaffordable for us and as the SABC board with the executive directors we have got to make sure that the commercial contracts that we enter to are making sense commercially and they are balanced. So where we are now, the demands from the PSL are not fair to the SABC and as the board we cannot approve them.
The SABC announced the decision on Friday after failing to reach consensus in talks with the PSL on a broadcasting deal. The public broadcaster apologised to soccer fans but says it cannot conclude business deals which may compromise its business operations.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK