Soapie scores as Afcon games are relegated

SABC1 soapie Generations' popularity and financial value has caused the screening of most of the Africa Cup of Nations matches to take a back seat.

The SABC has admitted that had Bafana Bafana qualified for the tournament - which starts tomorrow - it would have been compelled to televise more than the eight games it has scheduled to broadcast live. The other 24 matches will be broadcast "delayed live".

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said: "It is part of our mandate to televise games of national importance in which our national teams take part."

Previously, the channel had moved both the 7.30pm news and the country's number one soapie to earlier slots to accommodate soccer matches with an 8pm kick-off.

Kganyago said the SABC had looked at what would bring in more revenue. With a source revealing that Generations makes R170000 for every 30 seconds worth of commercials it generates, it is understandable why the public broadcaster would not budge. Each episode of the soapie, which is watched by more than six million people, generates as much as R1.36-million from four minutes of advertisements.

Pay channels SuperSport4 and SuperSport6 will broadcast all 32 games live, starting with the opener between Equatorial Guinea and Libya.

Kganyago would not divulge how much the SABC had paid for the rights to broadcast the tournament, but said it was "nowhere near" the reported R1-billion.

He said there were no disputes with Sport Five, the company that sells the rights for CAF tournaments. The SABC will broadcast the following matches live:

•  Equatorial Guinea vs Libya (tomorrow)
•  Senegal vs Zambia (tomorrow)
•  Ivory Coast vs Sudan (Sunday)
•  Ghana vs Mali (January 28)
•  Quarterfinal 2 (February 4)
•  Quarterfinal 3 (February 5)
•  Semifinal 1 (February 8)
•  Final (February 12)