South African public-service broadcaster SABC has renewed a rights deal for the 2019 edition of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Mzansi Super League.
The Twenty20 tournament will take place in November and December, with SABC acquiring non-exclusive rights.
Various reports have suggested that pay-television broadcaster SuperSport – the only other realistic potential platform for coverage of the league – once again did not express a significant interest in the rights, having taken a similar position for the inaugural edition of the competition last year.
CSA has a rights deal with SuperSport for international cricket coverage that will run until May 2021.
“We only have literally two broadcasters in the country who can afford to broadcast cricket, and that’s SABC and SuperSport,” CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe was quoted as saying by cricket news website ESPNCricinfo. “So, you can imagine that CSA does not have much room to manoeuvre in terms of making decisions.”
Moroe added that further details regarding coverage of the tournament would be revealed in the coming two weeks.
Separately, SABC has been embroiled in a dispute with Supersport over rights to South Africa’s Premier Soccer League after talks over a possible sublicensing deal broke down over the weekend following the public-service broadcaster’s refusal to meet the R56m ($3.8m)-per-season asking price.
SABC is under pressure to slash costs after receiving a R3.2bn bailout from the government last month.