Money Was The Motive

GTV’s assertion that they were granted the EPL television rights because the EPL wanted more Africans to watch the premiership, at a lower price, is removed from the truth.

For a start, GTV only has a fraction of the subscribers that MultiChoice has. GTV only has operations in three countries so far and most of the continent will not see the games secured by GTV for a long time to come – you don’t build a Pan-African Pay TV business overnight.Another fact is that nowhere in the tender documentation does the EPL ask the operators / sport agents to submit information on the price at which they plan to sell to consumers.Finally, if it was a simple matter of granting greater access, the EPL would not have to conduct a closed bidding process granting the rights to the highest bidder.The awarding of the broadcasting rights was based solely on who paid more for the rights.If indeed it was the EPL’s decision to award the rights to the broadcaster with the largest reach or the operator that are prepared to sell their service to consumers at the lowest price, as contented by GTV, the EPL would have asked SuperSport or the other operators / sports agents to submit with their bid subscribers numbers, pricing of their bouquets, etc.This information did not form part of the bid process.As a closed bidding process, the bidders could not negotiate with the EPL or interact with the EPL in way to sway them to award the rights to a certain operator.Each interested party had to submit their bid and the outcome was purely based on the highest bid.SuperSport submitted a bid that they believed would be more than adequate (a bid that was 400 per cent more than what they had previously paid), but lost the “A” package in Rest of Africa and Nigeria to a higher bid.We regret losing the EPL “A” package but we have done a lot to make sure that DStv subscribers will still get the widest coverage of African and international football – that is why DStv subscribers will see much more soccer than any other operator can offer.We hope that this letter provide you with the facts on how the EPL right was sold.Kobus Bezuidenhout MultichoiceGTV only has operations in three countries so far and most of the continent will not see the games secured by GTV for a long time to come – you don’t build a Pan-African Pay TV business overnight.Another fact is that nowhere in the tender documentation does the EPL ask the operators / sport agents to submit information on the price at which they plan to sell to consumers.Finally, if it was a simple matter of granting greater access, the EPL would not have to conduct a closed bidding process granting the rights to the highest bidder.The awarding of the broadcasting rights was based solely on who paid more for the rights.If indeed it was the EPL’s decision to award the rights to the broadcaster with the largest reach or the operator that are prepared to sell their service to consumers at the lowest price, as contented by GTV, the EPL would have asked SuperSport or the other operators / sports agents to submit with their bid subscribers numbers, pricing of their bouquets, etc.This information did not form part of the bid process.As a closed bidding process, the bidders could not negotiate with the EPL or interact with the EPL in way to sway them to award the rights to a certain operator.Each interested party had to submit their bid and the outcome was purely based on the highest bid.SuperSport submitted a bid that they believed would be more than adequate (a bid that was 400 per cent more than what they had previously paid), but lost the “A” package in Rest of Africa and Nigeria to a higher bid.We regret losing the EPL “A” package but we have done a lot to make sure that DStv subscribers will still get the widest coverage of African and international football – that is why DStv subscribers will see much more soccer than any other operator can offer.We hope that this letter provide you with the facts on how the EPL right was sold.Kobus Bezuidenhout Multichoice