Zimpapers Logo

Cape Town — The Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture welcomed the newly signed broadcast agreement, which sees the Absa Premiership matches aired on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television and radio.

Sport24 announced on Friday that MultiChoice and SABC had agreed to a deal after the public broadcaster suffered a three-week “blackout”.

This after the SABC was expected to pay the broadcast holder SuperSport R280 million for 144 matches annually over a period of five years.

A cash-stripped SABC reportedly cited a loss of R1.3 billion over the course of five years in relation to the broadcast of PSL matches.

Starting this weekend, all matches will now be televised live on SABC, including radio.

Beauty Dlulane, who is chairperson of the sports, arts and culture committee, stated in a press release: “All sides need to honour their contractual agreement, as agreed to with the minister, so that the poorest of the poor people of South Africa are able to view future matches without being plunged into darkness, as happened in the past two weeks.”

According to the statement given by the SABC, the new agreement between SuperSport and the SABC is five years.

The first PSL match to be broadcast on SABC will get underway on Saturday at 15:00.

Further details regarding match distribution will be provided. — Sport24.