It’s been the subject of public outcry, petitions and mudslinging, but it appears as if SABC3 will, in fact, be retaining the rights to broadcast Grands Prix next year. A source close to negotiations over F1 broadcasting rights for 2002 reveals some details…
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the SABC has all but closed a deal with the representatives of F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the Formula One Administration (FOA) to continue its broadcast of Formula One Grands Prix next year.
This is the word from a source close to the negotiation process, who informed CARtoday.com that Ecclestone had, in the light of the weak rand, expensive production costs and the limits of the SABC’s budget, offered the rights to the public broadcaster at the reduced rate of $3 million or R28,5 million. This price is far less than the annual rights costs, which until recently had been estimated at $7 million or R65 million.
This deal, the source added, was dependent on four potential sponsors underwriting the costs. Furthermore, the total package – which had yet to be finalised – could include more than just live feed from qualifying and the race, but also pre-race reports from ITV reporters in the pitlane and on the starting grid.
Recent reports quoting sources from within the SABC seem to confirm that an announcement – and for South African F1 lovers, a favourable one – is imminent. What a lot of viewers may not have realised, is that if the SABC had not secured the rights to broadcast Formula One, South Africans would have needed to emigrate to see Schumacher & Co line up at the Australian Grand Prix on March 3 next year.
According to the Concorde Agreement between SLEC Holdings – the German consortium that owns the commercial rights to F1 – and the manufacturers involved in the sport, Formula One broadcasts have to be aired on free-to-air channels until at least 2007.
What this means is that if the SABC failed to reach an agreement with Ecclestone and the FOA by March 3, pay-channel M-Net and digital satellite channel operator DStv would not have been able to air race coverage without getting special permission. Even if that could be done, observers believe that M-Net would have been reluctant to fork out for Formula One, given the channel’s extensive (and costly) coverage of other sports – and even Big Brother.
Delayed broadcasts on “open time”, the free-to-air period between 5 pm and 7 pm, would also have been unlikely due to programming considerations, said Dieter Rencken, former SABC3 Formula One correspondent. E.tv, which recently acquired the rights to broadcast the next World Cup soccer tournament, could simply not afford to acquire F1 broadcasting rights, Rencken added.
Rencken has since August been at the forefront of a campaign to put pressure on the SABC to renew its contract, which expired after this year’s Japanese Grand Prix. The Formula One club of SA has even launched a petition website: www.wewantf1.co.za to show its support for the campaign.
In a report dubbed “SATV to drop F1 GP” in The Citizen newspaper, Rencken quoted senior personnel within the SABC saying that the fee for F1 broadcasting rights “dominated production costs and it is this that the SABC has to rationalise in view of the current status (on August 31) of the rand”.
The SABC countered by saying that Rencken’s report had been “both inaccurate and misleading”. It quoted Koos Radebe, SABC’s director of sport, as saying that “negotiations were continuing”.
In response to the “SATV to drop F1 GP” report, the SABC said Rencken had “freely mixed fact with speculation and misinformation”.
On Monday, Rencken told CARtoday.com that the leadership of the SABC had made itself guilty of “a lack of transparency” and “improper commercial running of the Grand Prix coverage.
“The management of the SABC must realise that the issue of Formula One broadcasting is not … going to go away overnight,” said Rencken. “March 3 (the start of next year’s F1 season) is approaching, and the longer the SABC takes to resolve the issue, the less chance there is to secure proper sponsorship before the season starts.
“Most broadcasters in other countries have managed to make Formula One coverage profitable and if the SABC fails to do the same, the broadcaster only has its own mismanagement of sponsorship and inadequate programming presentation to blame.”
