MultiChoice has announced that it has reached an agreement with the SABC to sub-license broadcast rights to the public broadcaster for the Rugby World Cup. Therefore, all Springbok games will be broadcast. All South Africans will be able to watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“I welcome this groundbreaking agreement, which will allow all South Africans to watch the world champions, the Springboks, as they defend their Rugby World Cup title. Rugby has the potential to unite our people to foster social cohesion and national unity. We have seen this when the Springboks have won the Rugby World Cup,” said Kodwa on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the agreement excludes the OVHD (eMedia) platform because of the conditions that MultiChoice is planning for the sub-licensing agreement. However, the SABC is unhappy about the condition that states it cannot carry the matches on Openview, claiming that millions of South African households won’t be able to view Springboks in the World Cup matches. The public broadcaster would have needed to pay more than R37 million for the exclusive rights to show all the Springbok games live.
MultiChoice has now given the SABC the go-ahead to televise 16 of the 48 games of the global showpiece, which will be on Friday. SABC is hoping that all the restrictive conditions can be enabled so that all South Africans can support the Boks. The games will be broadcast on SABC 2 as well as SABC’s streaming platforms, SABC Plus. All these rights were secured by Hollywoodbets and also South African Breweries with Castle Lager.
