SABC to meet PSL over TV deal
2007-06-19 17:28
Johannesburg - The SABC has called for an urgent meeting with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) over its controversial awarding of broadcasting rights to the pay-channel, SuperSport.
"The (SABC) Board calls upon the leadership of PSL to urgently meet with the SABC management team to negotiate a settlement to this dispute," chairperson Eddie Funde said in a statement on Tuesday.
This, after Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile's call on Sunday to all involved to go back to the drawing board to find a viable way of making matches accessible.
PSL chair Irvin Khoza announced on Thursday that SuperSport had been awarded the R1bn exclusive right to broadcast PSL soccer matches for the next five years.
The SABC was "quite clear" on its legal rights, and would "vigorously protect" the sanctity of its legal contract, said Funde.
However, the board wanted an amicable resolution which enabled it - as the country's only public broadcaster - to exercise its constitutional mandate of promoting public access to sports.
"The SABC and the PSL have a joint and primary responsibility for promoting football in the collective interests of our nation. We firmly believe that this common agenda is shared by both SABC and PSL.
"This alone should be a sufficient motivation for getting both parties together in earnest to seek a mutually-rewarding solution," Funde said.
Could ruin the image of South African football
The PSL could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Stofile called the SABC and PSL's handling of the matter "less than mature" and warned that the deal could ruin the image of South African football.
"Games must be accessible and affordable to all," he said.
Assurances by SuperSport of its intention to work with the SABC and, or e.tv to ensure "a substantial portion" of local soccer is available free-to-air have not been enough to deter critics.
The deal was "totally insensitive, if not outright provocative, to the millions of soccer-loving South Africans", said the SA Communist Party.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions charged that matches would be broadcast "to only a small elite of rich TV viewers, while depriving millions of the working class and the poor the opportunity to watch their favourite sport".
Funde said the deal was completely at odds with "an unspoken, but powerful tradition" of the right of public access to football in South Africa.
"As the nation's premier and only public broadcaster, the SABC clearly cannot accept this situation."
Football in South Africa, unlike most other countries, was as a sport "of national interest" as a force for social cohesion and immense national pride.
"Our public, especially poor communities must have full access to watching and listening to professional football.
"This has been a right which the SABC has promoted on behalf of the nation for decades," he said.
- SAPA