SuperSport wins TV soccer battle

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) have concluded a deal worth well in excess of a billion Rand over five years with SuperSport International giving the pay channel exclusive TV rights on all their fixtures.

The announcement was made by PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza at the League's Parktown offices on Thursday and is the culmination of a simmering war with SABC who have held the TV rights since the League's inception nine seasons ago.

Effectively the move would deprive the bulk of South Africa's millions of passionate soccer fans with the means to watch Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and the other PSL teams on TV - although Khoza stressed the deal with SuperSport was conditional on them offering the rights of whichever games they saw fit to rival TV broadcasters.

PSL Chief Operations Officer Professor Ronnie Schloss said that after the ongoing deadlock with SABC, the national broadcaster had not as much as tendered a bid for the League's TV rights.

"They ignored the offer to submit a bid," added Schloss, "and we considered offers only from SuperSport, e.tv and Telkom all of whom either have or are planning to launch satellite channels.

Schloss confirmed the contract with SuperSport was worth "well in excess of a billion Rand - and while he said that the exact amount would not be officially released, insiders have confirmed that it will be worth in excess of R300-million annually to the PSL.

"We don't know how the SABC will react to the League accepting SuperSport's offer," added the PSL's Chief Operations Officer, "but they were invited to tender a bid and for whatever reasons decided against it."

Schloss stressed, however, that the contract with SuperSport was only for TV rights and did not include any future negotiations that will take place with companies over radio rights.

And paraphrasing a famous Winston Churchill war-time retort, one leading soccer official said the TV announcement was not likely to be the end of the confrontation between the PSL and SABC.

Source: Independent Online.