South Africa may go after MultiChoice’s monopoly over live sports

South African sports minister, Gayton McKenzie has said that his ministry is prepared to battle it out with MultiChoice over its monopoly of live sports broadcast in the country for several years through DStv’s SuperSport. The minister issued the warning at a recent press briefing event.

According to the minister, this will happen if both parties are unable to reach a resolution that would allow all South Africans to watch their national sports teams on local stations. He argued that it is wrong that one broadcaster can decide access to sports games featuring the country’s national teams.

“The national team doesn’t belong to MultiChoice or SABC or E-TV. None of them should act like the national team belongs to them. I’m not going to be an enabler of the majority of our people not being able to watch the national rugby team or soccer team”, he explained.

Although the minister described his statement as a friendly warning, he said he would go to war with the broadcasting company if it meant more South Africans would be able to watch their national sports teams. “I intend to fully use that legislation. We are meeting with them. As we say we come in peace, but if they want war, they will get war”, he said.

Recall that eMedia and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have been battling MultiChoice’s exclusive broadcast rights for sports games, including live matches featuring the national rugby and cricket teams. As it stands, the pay-TV broadcaster holds exclusive rights to broadcast these events.

In July 2024, MultiChoice rejected E-tv owner eMedia’s offer for the rights to broadcast Springbok rugby test matches against Ireland on Openview. The DStv owner said the offer was too low.

“eMedia made a significant financial offer to MultiChoice to broadcast the Irish rugby Pretoria and Durban test matches, which MultiChoice inexplicably rejected,” the company said in a statement.

eMedia also complained that MultiChoice had only opened a tender for free-to-air broadcasters to bid for sub-licensing rights just about a month before the tournament commenced.

“eMedia views the issuing of these late invitations to tender by MultiChoice as undermining fair competition and ignoring a recent Competition Tribunal order designed to prevent such restrictive practices,” the company said.

Subsequently, eMedia obtained an interdict against MultiChoice preventing the pay-TV operator from enacting provisions in sub-licensing contracts that blocked the SABC from broadcasting matches on channels it provides to Openview.

Multichoice arrests suspected piracy kingpin

Recall that Multichoice announced last week that it has, alongside police detectives, nabbed an alleged piracy kingpin in Gauteng, a small province in Johannesburg as part of its ongoing antipiracy efforts.

According to a statement by the media company, the arrest follows a successful raid conducted in Gauteng with the support of detectives from the Eldorado Park police station. The suspect, Jurgen Johannes Potgieter, was arrested for selling login credentials and internet streaming pirate devices, which enabled illegal access to premium content. 

“These actions are in direct contravention of sections within the Cybercrime Act. Additionally, the statement said the suspect faces money laundering charges”. Potgieter has been detained and will appear in court in Lenasia on Friday. The statement added that his equipment was confiscated by the police during the raid and “will be thoroughly analysed”.

“This raid highlights our continuous efforts to dismantle illegal operations that undermine the creative industry,” said Frikke Jonker, the director of broadcast cybersecurity and antipiracy at MultiChoice-owned Irdeto, in the statement.

MultiChoice also said that it founded Partners Against Piracy, an Africa-wide, multi-stakeholder initiative to work alongside local governments and prosecutors to address the issue of copyright infringement actively.

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