South African commercial broadcaster E.tv acquired delayed rights for the rugby union Test match between South Africa and England on June 16 after public-service broadcaster the SABC rejected the opportunity to purchase the rights in a sublicensing deal with pay-television broadcaster Supersport.
The game was shown live on the Supersport 1 and Supersport HD1 pay-television channels at 5pm local time before being shown delayed-in-full five hours later on E.tv.
E.tv stepped in for the one-match deal after the SABC said it would only be prepared to show the game live, according to local media reports.
The SABC refuted claims in some local media reports that it had adopted a ‘live-or-nothing’ approach to all sports rights. “May it be noted that there is no such policy at the SABC,” the broadcaster said.
The SABC sublicensed live radio rights for the match from Supersport.