‘Minimal’ cost for UK matches

The SABC deal to show live matches of the English Premier League on Saturdays is cost-effective, spokesperson Neo Momodu said on Wednesday.

The cash-strapped public broadcaster has sub-licensed the broadcast rights for English Premier League live matches from the main rights holder, Kwese Sports.

“Yes, there will be money that will come from the SABC to Kwese for the broadcast rights but I can assure you that it is cost-effective and minimal compared to its investment into other local sporting codes‚” Momodu said.

“Generally, international content is much cheaper to acquire than the local content‚ meaning we acquired the English Premier League at a cost way less than what we paid for the PSL rights.”

The rights package will consist of 33 live matches‚ selected by the English Premier League‚ for the duration of 2018/2019.

The SABC said the EPL deal would increase viewership and in turn attract more advertisers.

The announcement of the EPL deal came just hours after the SABC board told parliament on Tuesday that it was in an awful financial state and unable to meet certain of its obligations.

It appears that Bafana Bafana’s next official games may not be broadcast live on the SABC because the public broadcaster owes money to the SA Football Association‚ which holds the rights to broadcast all national teams’ matches.

Safa revealed that the SABC had failed to honour its financial obligations for several months and owed the football body more than R50m. –