DSTv seems to be heading for a pitfall as its subsidiary, Supersports is presently under intense regulatory scrutiny by the South African government and may soon loose its exclusive rights to broadcasting the popular English Premier League (EPL) and other key sports.
Presently in South Africa, Supersport holds exclusive rights to broadcasting key sports like the English Premier League (EPL), Premier Soccer League (PSL), the Springboks and Super Rugby matches and cricket. This, however, seems to be too much of a monopoly, according the Congress of South Africa Trade Union who held a protest on the issue announcing plans to picket Saturday Rugby Championship clash between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.
The trade union wants the national rugby matches to be a free broadcast to all South African citizens via the SABC, because as it stands, only DSTv subscribers with access to SuperSport are able to watch Springbok matches live. The union also called for the sacking of two commentators, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha. Below is their statement:
“National sports that must inspire the whole nation must be shown live on SABC, as it is a national sport of all the people.”
“This kind of discrimination will never be allowed in a national soccer match, as the government would step in to ensure it is available live for all citizens.
“This sport has been denied the majority of children in schools because of (the South African Rugby Union) SARU’s bad development programmes and the ministry allows them to get away with it.
“The commentators like Naas Botha and Nick Mallett are outdated and should be replaced. Nick Mallett also has a habit of promoting white players and talking black players down, because he suits the Stellenbosch mafia’s agenda. Mallett should be removed for this racism and clear unbiased reporting of the game.”
Similarly, SuperSport has also had troubles in reserving the exclusive rights of showing Cricket matches in South Africa. You can catch all that scoop here.
Talking about showing the EPL and Football in general, Facebook and Amazon are currently in the race for English Premier League rights and also the Champions League. Facebook’s head of sports refused to rule out a bid for EPL rights.
Meanwhile, Nigerians are also putting the heat on the said DSTv as they have, on several occasions come under scrutiny for providing ridiculous subscription packages at seemingly outrageous prices.
The scrutiny even grew stronger since an indigenous cableTV provider, TStv came into the picture, with the promise to provide a pay-as-you-use service, free internet data and football broadcast in all the major leagues around the globe including the EPL, at affordable rates (a promise some have said is too good to be true but that is a story for another day).
In the light of this, many present DStv subscribers have vowed to get themselves a new TStv decoder when it starts selling and 'throw' their DSTv decoders in the trash.
While this plight has been expressed mostly by the masses, the government of Nigeria seems to care less about the issue.
But with the heat coming down on Multichoice and its subsidiary, Supersport, even in their home country, and with new competitions like KWESE in Zimbabwe and TStv in Nigeria springing up, we might just be inching closer to the end of DSTv's monopolistic reign in Nigeria, and Africa as a whole.
What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below.
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