{"id":317806,"date":"2019-05-20T09:56:10","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T07:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=317806"},"modified":"2019-05-20T09:56:10","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T07:56:10","slug":"dstv-sports-monopoly-hearings-to-be-held-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/317806\/dstv-sports-monopoly-hearings-to-be-held-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"DStv sports monopoly hearings to be held next week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will begin public hearings on the country&#8217;s proposed sports broadcasting changes on 27 May.<\/p>\n<p>Published in December, the Draft Sports Broadcasting Services Amendment Regulations are aimed at making big sporting events accessible for free to all South Africans.<\/p>\n<p>MyBroadband reports that as part of the draft regulations, Icasa listed many popular sporting events which must be broadcast live by a free-to-air service like the SABC.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Summer Olympic Games<\/li>\n<li>FIFA World Cup<\/li>\n<li>Rugby World Cup<\/li>\n<li>ICC Cricket World Cup<\/li>\n<li>Africa Cup of Nations<\/li>\n<li>ICC T20 Cricket World Championships<\/li>\n<li>International Boxing Federations<\/li>\n<li>National Netball<\/li>\n<li>Commonwealth Games<\/li>\n<li>International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If a free-to-air licensee, like the SABC or eTV, cannot acquire the sporting rights for these events, subscription service broadcasters like MultiChoice can bid for the rights on a non-exclusive basis.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous other sporting events, like Super Rugby, Currie Cup, Premier League Soccer, and the COSAFA Cup, are available to subscription broadcasters on a non-exclusive basis.<\/p>\n<p>The regulations further require free-to-air and subscription services to broadcast at least two minority sporting codes like golf, tennis, martial arts, basketball, squash, and motor sport.<\/p>\n<p>The public hearings will be held from 27 to 31 May 2019 at African Pride Irene Country Club, Nellmapius Drive, Irene, Centurion from 09h00.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Complaints\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Icasa said that it has received 39 written submissions, 28 of which have confirmed their availability for oral representations in the public hearings.<\/p>\n<p>While the regulations have been praised for their push towards making sports accessible, several sporting bodies have warned that they could be catastrophic.<\/p>\n<p>A number of South African bodies have <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/304732\/how-new-icasa-regulations-could-damage-sport-in-south-africa-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">united<\/a> <\/strong>in a bid to oppose new broadcasting regulations, as they stand to lose significant funding due to the new model.<\/p>\n<p>DStv is the largest funder of a number of sporting codes in the country, with many South African sporting groups reliant on the broadcaster for their day to day operations.<\/p>\n<p>According to South African Rugby Union CEO Jurie Roux, 55% of their revenue comes from broadcasting rights \u2013 with the lion\u2019s share of this being contributed by SuperSport.<\/p>\n<p>This has been echoed by other sporting codes, with PSL chairman Irvin Khoza stating that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/294604-if-you-take-away-dstv-we-will-shut-down-psl.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>the PSL would shut down<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0if Icasa goes through with the proposed amendment.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/314996\/the-sabc-is-close-to-a-total-blackout-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The SABC is close to a total blackout: CEO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will begin public hearings on the country&#8217;s proposed sports broadcasting changes on 27 May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":252567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-317806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317806"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317824,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317806\/revisions\/317824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}