Safa believes it is close to new broadcast deal with SABC: Monyepao

11 December 2023 - 14:33
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Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao during the international friendly match between Bafana Bafana and DR Congo at Orlando Stadium on September 12.
Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao during the international friendly match between Bafana Bafana and DR Congo at Orlando Stadium on September 12.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images

South African Football Association (Safa) CEO Lydia Monyepao has provided an update on the broadcast rights negotiation between the federation and the SABC.   

The two parties have been trying to reach a new deal after the previous one ended in September, though the SABC has still broadcast Bafana Bafana, Banyana Banyana and Hollywoodbets Super League (Safa's national women's league) matches since then.   

Early this year, Safa, through former CEO Tebogo Motlanthe and president Danny Jordaan expressed their unhappiness with the revenue from the old deal with the cash-strapped public broadcaster.   

The association said there was the possibility of looking for a better deal elsewhere.    

However, Monyepao said Safa has been in talks with the SABC for months and they are close to reaching an agreement.   

“We had negotiations with the SABC well before the contract ended,” Monyepao said.   

“It was [about] looking at how we unpack the various properties we have, because last time it was all the properties in one and all those were given to the broadcaster.   

“But now we are looking at unbundling the various properties in terms of what money we can generate from those.”

Monyepao said Safa is waiting for the SABC's decisionmakers to come back to them, hopefully before the end of the year.   

“But I think we are almost at the finish line because we have submitted what we think is fair and they came back to us, and I think at some point we reached the agreement to say we are all happy, we can go forward,” she said.   

“But I believe there’s a new CEO [at SABC, Nomsa Chabeli] that has come on board, so we are hoping that before they close their offices [for Christmas holidays] they can revert to us with what we tabled.”   

SABC this month failed to acquire rights from Cricket South Africa for the Indian tour to play the Proteas this month and next month.   

The public broadcaster cited sponsors' withdrawals as the reason for being unable to acquire those rights.


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