SuperSport acquires rights to Bafana matches
SuperSport announced on Wednesday that it had concluded a broadcast rights deal with the SA Football Association (Safa).
In terms of the agreement, SuperSport will broadcast all home and away “friendly” matches which Bafana Bafana participate in during 2013. SuperSport has acquired exclusive pay transmission rights in South Africa, while its rights in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and the adjacent islands are exclusive.
The World of Champions will broadcast this content by way of all broadcast technologies, including Television, Internet and Mobile.
The agreement also includes pay broadcast rights to other Bafana Bafana matches that Safa has jurisdiction over, Banyana Banyana fixtures, men's and women's national age-group teams and other Safa content, including development and grassroots football.
The deal commences with the important Bafana Bafana Afcon warm-up fixtures to be played against Norway in Cape Town and Algeria in Orlando on 8 and 12 January, respectively.
Happy Ntshingila, the CEO of SuperSport was understandably buoyant about the signing: "The World of Champions is very pleased to add Safa’s content to our wide array of football and other sport. This is an extremely significant year for Bafana Bafana and we are proud that our subscribers will be able to support our national team through our exclusively live and high-definition broadcasts.”
Robin Petersen, the new CEO of the Safa Development Agency, added his positive views about the conclusion of the contract: "We have wished, for some time to have our product broadcast by SuperSport, which is a leading and world-class sports broadcaster. The revenue derived from this deal will assist Safa with its development plans and afford substantial further exposure for our brand on the various platforms that SuperSport broadcasts on."
Acting Safa CEO, Pinky Lehoko, also expressed her delight in the finalisation of the contract, saying that “The additional exposure that this deal will give to our national teams will assist us commercially going forward by giving our sponsors additional exposure”.
Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, Safa Acting President, thanked SuperSport for their commitment to Safa. “This will assist us in mobilising the support of the nation behind Bafana Bafana as we build up to the AFCON 2013 tournament”, he stated.
