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The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) remains hopeful that the flagship ultrarace will not suffer a television blackout after the SABC failed to televise the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon on Sunday.
The public broadcaster – whose financial woes are well-documented – could not air the Easter Saturday race in Cape Town as they had no deal with Athletics SA (ASA).
SABC spokesperson Vuyo Mthembu yesterday told City Press: “Unfortunately there was no agreement between us and ASA to broadcast the race.”
She said there had been negotiations but the two parties could not reach an agreement.
ASA acting president James Moloi confirmed that there was no agreement between the two parties but said he could not give more information as he had not been involved in the negotiations.
“Remember, I have been acting president only since last week,” said Moloi, who is ASA’s road running chairperson and is acting as president in the absence of Aleck Skhosana who is abroad on athletics business.
When asked if the SABC was likely to televise the Comrades race, and possibly the SA Senior Athletics Championships that start in Germiston on Thursday, Mthembu said: “As per the norm, the SABC will communicate directly to its audiences should it broadcast a particular event.”
Mthembu said the SABC was also “not in a position to discuss its contractual relationship with ASA in the public space”.
Despite the Two Oceans blackout, CMA general manager Keletso Totlhanyo allayed fears of the Comrades race suffering the same fate on June 9.
“Broadcast plans for the 2019 Comrades Marathon are going on well; CMA has sent a request to ASA for permission to engage with the public broadcaster while the SABC/ASA negotiations [for a long-term broadcast agreement] are still going on. This permission for the 2019 Comrades marathon broadcast has been granted, CMA is hoping to meet with the SABC in the coming week and we are hopeful that the negotiations will be fruitful.”
Moloi said the SABC had extended an invitation to meet with ASA this week, which happened on Thursday at 2pm at the SABC. (Find out more about this meeting in City Press this weekend)
The public broadcaster has held the exclusive broadcast rights of ASA’s major events for the longest time, including the Comrades and Two Oceans marathons.
The KwaZulu-Natal annual ultra-event has enjoyed between 12 and 13 hours of live television coverage for the past 36 years.
The ASA and SABC agreements were such that the public broadcaster would pay for broadcast rights to the federation.
The SABC also used to foot all production costs which run into a couple of millions of rands but in turn sold advertising from which they pocketed the proceeds.
“The Comrades Marathon has always done things differently, as they would ensure that the sponsors buy the broadcast packages and this at least assisted the SABC with covering production costs,” said the CMA’s Totlhanyo. “Losing out on television coverage will jeopardise the future of some of SA’s most iconic and valuable sporting assets.”
It is public knowledge that the SABC is still not out of the red and it was also unable to beam live some of Bafana Bafana’s Afcon qualifying matches.
This after the SABC failed to conclude an agreement with Safa which rejected a R10 million offer that was far below the R110 million of the previous five-year deal.
