2010 FIFA World Cup digital broadcasting rights dispute

Following the Afro-IP post last month entitled 2010 World Cup Music Rights: whose right? Afro Leo has learnt from The Star this morning that there is another skirmish over rights relating to the World Cup.

Digital Horizons, a SA based black owned company has lodged an urgent application in which it asked the court to prevent the SABC ,the national broadcaster, from concluding a deal with Sony over the digital broadcasting rights. A committee appointed by the SABC board to look for a company which could partner the public broadcaster had earlier recommended that the R383m tender be awarded to Digital Horizons. However, the court heard that the board chose to ignore the negotiating team's recommendation. ‘The decision to award the tender to Sony was not taken by the full SABC board,’ Digital Horizons argued. The SABC board said Sony's bid was R66m (about $8.5million) less than Digital Horizons' quote. Judge Moroa Tsoka agreed with the SABC that the matter was not urgent and called on both parties to make formal presentation in court on 12 August. Disputes over rights at this fairly late stage will not do anything to promote 2010 event, which is already hampered by international concerns over safety and readiness.