MultiChoice reacts to cricket uproar

Stephan Bock of Windhoek writes:

Can you please explain the following to me:

• Why is the current SA cricket test series in Australia not being broadcast in Namibia? A while ago you created channel 222 apparently for cricket, why is the series not being broadcast here when it is available in South Africa?

•Will future SA international rugby games be shown in Namibia or will these also disappear from our screens?

•In the same sense, BBC Earth is available in South Africa but not in Namibia – why?

You are aware that we are paying the same if not more than subscribers in South Africa, so why this sort of treatment? You clearly don’t have a problem taking plenty of our money, so why are we not getting the same content as South African viewers? Namibia has always been part of DStv’s South-African programming setup, but nowadays we pay loads of money to watch the Nigerian and Zambian soccer leagues and all sorts of other repeat events, most of the times on 3 or 4 different channels simultaneously, not to mention the fact that at least 70% of your entire movie lineup is nothing but repeat, repeat, repeat.

Response

Lizette Foot, Corporate Affairs Manager of Multichoice Namibia writes:

Why is the current SA cricket test series in Australia not being broadcast in Namibia?

Firstly, let us explain the process of international standards with regards to content acquisition, in particular sports rights: our channel suppliers such as SuperSport bid for sports broadcast rights during the acquisition window. The relevant channels basically compete with other pay-TV channels and streaming services to offer the best price to the rights holders to acquire the rights for programming.

In this case, Cricket Australia has carved up its rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, splitting rights in South Africa from rights on the rest of the continent. SuperSport has acquired rights to all international cricket played in Australia for South Africa only. Therefore, a consequence of a decision made by Cricket Australia affected the rest of Africa.

Due to renewed competition across the continent, this sort of thing may happen from time to time and is beyond our control.

Will future SA international Rugby games be shown in Namibia or will these also disappear from our screens?

Please log on to www.supersport.com to keep abreast of rugby highlights.

BBC Earth is available in South Africa but not in Namibia – why?

Research indicated that the channels BBC BRIT as well as BBC Lifestyle have the strongest resonance with African audiences. As such, MultiChoice informed Namibian subscribers of the BBC channel changes in September last year, that saw the introduction of new global genre brands offering world-class, first run content. BBC-branded channels available in Namibia include BBC First (channel 119); BBC Brit (channel 120) and BBC Lifestyle (channel 174) as well as CBeebies and BBC World News.

We regret any inconvenience to our subscribers and we want to assure them that we will continue to constantly review our channel offering to ensure that our subscribers receive all the best channels available from around the world.