South Africa’s ruling ANC party will discuss the role of sports rights in the television market at a policy conference to be held next week.
The conference, which will take place on June 26, will also address the future direction of the pay-television sector.
The ANC’s Communications Policy Discussion document, drafted for the conference, said: “There is a need to relook at the behaviour of the dominant players, access to premium content, including sports rights, and access to critical infrastructure by the competitors in this sector, to enable the entry of new pay-television services during the digital migration process, and new free-to-air players after the switchover in 2015.”
Multichoice, the owner of the pay-television platform DStv and the bouquet of Supersport premium sports channels, has traditionally been the dominant player in the country’s sports-rights market.