The South African Broadcasting Corporation is set to receive more than ZAR1bn (€58.4m/$64.2m) in a major financial boost from the country’s Treasury.
This latest bailout is worth ZAR1.1bn, and brings the total amount of funding provided to the SABC by the South African Treasury to ZAR3.2bn in just under five months.
The money will be transferred into SABC’s accounts by March 31 and was awarded after the broadcaster satisfied three remaining conditions which were outstanding from its previous cash injection.
A spokesperson for the Treasury told South African media: “The conditions included reviewing broadcasting sector policies to respond to advances in technology, costing the developmental mandate and evaluating opportunities for private-sector participation.”
In October, it was announced that the SABC had satisfied five out of eight conditions to receive a full bailout from the Treasury, as the SABC was perilously close to going out of business. As a result of it achieving those conditions, it was granted two thirds of the amount it had applied for.
Prior to this, SABC group chief executive Madoda Mxakwe said that 83 per cent of all the broadcaster’s expenditure went directly on the acquisition of sports rights. This contributed to a ZAR483m loss for the 2018-19 financial year.
Commenting on sports rights acquisitions in general, Mxakwe said: “The board instructed us to say that we will not sign any deal that is not commercially viable for the SABC. What has tended to happen in the past was these deals were signed without necessarily looking at the cost base for the SABC.”
The SABC holds various rights to properties, including the Olympic Games, a handful of the South African Football Association’s properties and the top-tier Premier Soccer League.
There was a free-to-air blackout of the first round of the 2019-20 Premier Soccer League after the SABC could not strike a sub-licensing deal with SuperSport. The public broadcaster claimed that it was being asked to pay an annual sum of ZAR280m over five years, and predicted that it would only bring in revenue of ZAR9.8m per year.
In the event, and following the interventions of ICASA and the government, the SABC reached a new PSL agreement with SuperSport running until the end of the 2023-24 season, paying ZAR72m per year for rights to 46 games.