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'TV rights not govt matter'
20/06/2007 15:45 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The government should not intervene in the broadcast rights saga between the SABC and the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the United Democratic Movement (UDM) said on Wednesday.
"It would be irresponsible for ministers and parliament to intervene in this fracas and rescue the SABC from its own mistakes," the party said in a statement.
"The PSL is being portrayed as an appendage of the SABC or government...The public should understand that we are dealing with two separate entities here; a state-funded broadcaster and a private institution, which have their own mandate from their constituency for developing and promoting soccer in this country."
PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza announced on Thursday that SuperSport had been awarded the R1bn exclusive right to broadcast league matches for the next five years.
The UDM said it was clear that the SABC had ample opportunity to improve its offer, as the PSL first approached it on October 16 to discuss the television rights, and they failed.
"That process led to a dispute and even went to the high court. The judge made it clear that if the arbitration between the SABC and the PSL was not completed by May 25 2007, then the SABC interdict preventing the PSL from negotiating with other broadcasters would fall away."
Business entity
The party said it was aware that the matter was still before the arbitrator.
"Legally speaking the SABC seems to have no case, if they failed to comply with their own court order.
"The arbitrator also seems to be in breach of that court order, since even weeks later there is still no indication that the arbitrator is wrapping up the matter."
It said the PSL was a business entity and entitled to award the rights to the highest bidder.
"If the leadership of the PSL runs out of money to pay clubs, they can't run to the Minister of Finance (Trevor Manuel) like a spoilt child begging for a bail-out, whereas the SABC is in the red and knows that they can always plead for more taxpayer money whenever they err."
Meanwhile, e.tv said on Wednesday it had secured the free-to-air rights to broadcast the Telkom Charity Cup from SuperSport.
"e.tv has always been keen to get involved in broadcasting local soccer," said channel director Bronwyn Keene-Young.
"This is a perfect opportunity to be involved with such an important charity event and launch our involvement in the promotion of local soccer."
The channel was currently in negotiations with SuperSport regarding the free-to-air rights for league matches.
- SAPA
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