South African football match draws worldwide interest

Pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports, international sports broadcaster ESPN and UK pay-television broadcaster Sports Tonight acquired rights for a South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) game between the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday, December 8.

 

ESPN’s one-game deal covered Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

 

The league’s acting chief executive Cambridge Mokanyane said: “A few months ago, PSL chairman Dr Irvin Khoza spoke of a vision to take the league to the world stage, and this is part of that goal. There can be no better advertisement of our professional football.”

 

The global feed for the game was produced by pay-television sports broadcaster SuperSport, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa and has the PSL’s domestic rights in a five-year deal, from 2012-13 to 2016-17.