Time for the News Channels To Get Starsat?

There once was a time when all one needed for sports in South Africa was Supersport. If Supersport did not have it, it did not exist.

However, now Starsat's sports offering, made up of a pair of Fox Sports Channels and StarTimes Sports, is starting to slowly eat away at Supersport's sports rights, meaning only the approximately 100 000 Starsat subscribers have access to sports events like the Women's World Cup, the under 20 World Cup and, from next season, the Bundesliga, among others.

However, not only do most viewers not have access to Starsat, but it doesn't seem as if the South African news channels, eNCA, SABC News Channel and ANN7, have Starsat either. Instead the only highlights they will show are highlights of matches that aired on Supersport or the SABC's sports offering.

The result? When the sports bulletin now comes on on these channels, any sports that airs on Starsat is now treated as merely being an after thought.

A prime example of this would be the Women's World Cup. Back in 2011 when the tournament aired on Supersport (with select matches on SABC1), the tournament was treated as any other part of the sports bulletin getting the full highlights package treatment.

This time around, Supersport ditched the Women's World Cup and the Under 20 World Cup in favour of showing the Copa America and the Women's World Cup has merely become an afterthought in the sports bulletin, usually lucky if the scores are mentioned.

Another major sporting event that is currently taking place that is not being aired on Supersport is the inaugural European Games being held in Baku. However, neither ANN7, eNCA or SABC News will be reporting on that (and neither will 24 hour sports news channel, Supersprt Blitz) because it is being aired on Fox Sports and not Supersport. 

Though it may seem like something small that sporting events shown on Fox Sports Africa and StarTimes Sports is being ignored by the 'mainstream' South African news channels, it is just a matter of time before one of these two broadcasters nab a major South African sporting event and that event could really suffer if the news channels and the rest of the media in South Africa are going to continue to nearly ignore any sports that does not air on either Supersport or the SABC.