Cricket followers in South Africa who do not have DStv will not be able to follow the Proteas’ exploits at the upcoming Cricket World Cup.
The World Cup gets underway in India with a rematch of the 2019 final when champions England take on runners-up New Zealand.
You won’t be able to watch it — or any other game for that matter — if you do not have DStv after Multichoice and the SABC failed to reach an agreement to share the rights.
This is the same dance that occured just before the Rugby World Cup kicked off last month, which ended with both parties coming to an agreement.
“Following extensive negotiations with Multichoice for the sub-leasing of the Cricket World Cup 2023 free-to-air broadcasting rights, the SABC regrets to announce that the corporation was not successful in securing these rights for South African audiences,” the national broadcaster said in a statement.
“The SABC has once again been disadvantaged in securing the broadcasting rights for one of the sporting codes classified as sport of national interest...”
Like they had with the Rugby World Cup issue, the SABC went on to “apologise to all cricket fans and all South Africans”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Multichoice took a swipe at the broke SABC for rejecting the significantly reduced commercial terms for the rights.
IOL Sport