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MultiChoice blames English PSL for football blackout
By Torby
Chimhashu
CONTINENTAL broadcaster,
MultiChoice Africa, has blamed the English Premier Soccer League (EPSL)
for withdrawing matches involving England's top four on its pay-per-view
television - Dstv.
Addressing irate subscribers who thronged MultiChoice Zimbabwe offices
Thursday, managing director Dean Westlake blamed the English premiership
chiefs for removing them from the A category to B category for the 2007/2008
Barclays soccer season.
He said: "We
bid 400% more this time but we got only 80 games. This is something
that is beyond our control. The English Premier League decided that
Nigeria and the rest of the Sub Saharan Africa except South Africa,
would have less games to show this season.
"What has made it difficult for us is that another competitor,
G TV, bought some rights and the English Premier League does not allow
them to sell those rights to us.
"Everything is determined by the English Premier League. For now,
the situation remains the same and we can not guarantee that it is likely
to change in the short term."
He said South Africa were lucky to have got 80% of the games, although
he refused to accept that this was so because of the 2010 World Cup
which the rainbow nation is hosting.
G TV which pipped MultiChoice Africa to most of the rights is only beaming
in three Eastern African countries - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
At one time, it has mulled moving into Zimbabwe and Zambia but was wary
of the tough regulations in Harare.
In a season in which the EPSL teams splashed more than £300 million
on new players, Zimbabweans and the rest of Africa will have to watch
few games involving their favourite teams.
Matches involving Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea
are now accessible to South African viewers only.
These big clubs have massive following in Africa where Man United and
Arsenal top the support rankings.
Dstv will show only four matches involving champions Manchester United
between now and November, starting with the derby against Manchester
City on Sunday.
Arsenal would be shown three times and Liverpool twice during the same period.
Traditionally,
MultiChoice Africa sports subsidiary, Super Sport, screened at
least three matches live involving the English premiership big four,
depending on the day of the fixtures.
The matches were shown on Super Sport 3, 5, 6, and 7, which translated
to Channels 23, 24, 25 26, and 27.
Zimbabwean subscribers pay the equivalent monthly subscriptions of US$57.
MultiChoice does not accept single monthly subscriptions, and subscribers
have to pay for three months at a time.
Last week, MultiChoice Zimbabwe sent an e-mail informing subscribers
that Super Sport channels had been relocated to channels 17, 18, 19
and 20 while 25, 26, 27 and 28 remained the same.
What was not explained was that the original Super Sport 3 (channel
23) would no longer be accessible outside South Africa, but was not
changed.
Instead, a shadow Super Sport 3 was created on channel 18.
Channel 20, which was interactive, has been blocked to stop featuring
events on Super Sport 3. Previously it showed all the action on Super
Sport 1,2,3 and 4 at once giving the subscribers the choice of which
channel to access quickly.
Multichoice Africa has subscribers in almost the whole continent with
the
exception of Arabic countries in North Africa - Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt
and
Morocco.
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