Safa unhappy with SABC TV rights deal, considers courting SuperSport

The South African Football Association (Safa) is unhappy about the poor revenue it has earned from its broadcast deal with the SABC and is willing to seek a better arrangement elsewhere.

Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said the association reported a R2.9m loss for 2022 at its ordinary congress in Kempton Park on Sunday.

He expressed the body’s unhappiness at the revenue it has earned from the SABC deal, but said “we are not serving divorce papers to the national broadcaster”.

However, a source who did not want to be named said there “is a huge possibility Safa will look elsewhere for a better broadcast agreement”, and the association wants to make overtures for a better deal from pay channel SuperSport.

Safa was paid R25m a year in its four-year broadcast deal for national teams and junior competitions with the SABC from October 2019. The deal ends in September.

The association is unhappy that, under pressure to ensure free-to-air coverage, Safa accepted that the cash-strapped public broadcaster negotiated down from the R110m a year in its previous deal.

Motlanthe said while the association understands the need to have Safa teams and events broadcast on free-to-air, the association cannot receive such a low income from TV rights, which constitutes a far greater percentage in most countries.

“The chair of the [parliamentary] sports portfolio committee, Beauty Dlulane, was here [at Safa's congress] and said she will push our issue around broadcasting,” the Safa CEO said.

“Because we are saying it’s an anomaly only in South Africa that the [broadcast] revenue [for the FA] is 16%. You look elsewhere and most of their budgets are made up [mostly] from broadcasting.

“She said she will assist us to convene a meeting with her counterparts in communications so we can talk about the prejudice we [Safa] suffer when we are only on the national broadcaster.

“That is one of the key issues, to say broadcasting is not what it is supposed to be, because you have moved from a certain amount to a very low amount.

“We know our broadcast agreement [with the SABC] is coming to an end in September. So we need to prepare and go there and argue our case.”

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa ) held hearings in 2019 on sports broadcasting regulation amendments encouraging international sport to be televised on free-to-air services. 

“Of course there are laws of the country and you have Icasa that says you must be on free-to-air,” Motlanthe said.

“ Safa wants a situation where even a member of the public in a deep rural area, whether unemployed, a person who cannot afford a subscription, must have access to [watching] national teams.

“But we are saying we must change our approach and it must not be restrictive to only free-to-air. We need to ensure we maximise the potential of getting income.

“Now everything [all the rights] resides with the national broadcaster. I don’t blame the national broadcaster; it’s how the contract was made...

“We are not saying we are serving divorce papers to the national broadcaster, but we are saying, ‘national broadcaster, also be reasonable’.

“We cannot move from the amount we were to what we are today.”

Safa's congress on Sunday followed a two-day football workshop/indaba on Friday and Saturday.