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SABC and e.tv plan for the World Cup
As official broadcaster the SABC holds the rights to air the tournament, which they will do by getting a feed from HBS, the host broadcaster for FIFA. If other broadcasters in South Africa want to air the matches, they will need to buy the rights from the SABC.
SABC Head of Group Communications, Kaizer Kganyago, says it makes sense that the SABC is the official broadcaster as, "the corporation has the biggest reach and will be in the position to bring the biggest soccer tournament in the world to citizens, not only through broadcasting on TV and radio but through fan parks that will be located throughout the country to give access to people who will not be able to go the stadium."
e.tv is not a rights holder and will not be airing any of the matches (live or delayed), but it has still patriotically dedicated itself to being a part of the Soccer World Cup.
Vasili Vass, e.tv's spokesperson states: "The 2010 World Cup is a big event in the country and as a channel we will be covering the matches in our bulletins giving in-depth reports and analysis of all the games as well as a look at how South African's and visitors to the country are responding to the games."
SABC's Kganyago say that getting a bigger audience was not the core reason for the SABC buying the rights to air the 2010 World Cup but, as a public service broadcaster, the SABC owed "it to the public to bring them the games, especially as they [are] happening on our home soil."
However, obviously optimistic that the SABC would in fact see an increase in viewership figures, Kganyago said that the SABC hoped to retain any viewers gained during the Soccer World Cup through its "great programming".
It's not all football
Not too surprisingly, e.tv has its own ideas on how to retain its current viewers while the World Cup is underway; Vass, however, was unable to go into much detail. "e.tv has put a programme strategy in place which will attract viewers who are not interested in watching the soccer. It is difficult to say if we will lose any viewers", he says.
Beyond catering for non-soccer lovers, e.tv has also developed a soccer programme Playa which is a soccer lifestyle show which was specifically created to complement the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
Vass also suggested that e.tv may have a little surprise for its viewers. "The e.tv creative team is also working on a concept which will capture the spirit of the event and make every South African be proud of the country hosting this," he says.
Speaking of surprises: in his response to rumblings that the SABC was in talks with ICASA regarding an additional temporary World Cup channel, Kganyago stated that "ICASA has not made a decision on the corporation's request for additional channels."
So, even though e.tv does not have broadcasting rights, it would appear that the channel has provisions in place to try and retain some of its viewers. However, it is likely that SABC viewership will increase substantially during the world cup.
Only once the tournament is behind us, will we know the full extent of SABC's gain , and the extent to which e.tv's programming strategy was effective.
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SABC will not retain any audiences after the world cup. What great programming are they talking about? The must be talking about the repeats...The people that run SABC dont know what they are doing!!
by Zola on March 22 2010, 22:43
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