As an official broadcast rights holder, SABC will provide at least 100 hours of conventional coverage with extensive news and highlight coverage on SABC 2 and Radio 2000 as part of the deal.

The SABC is the main public broadcaster in South Africa and provided free-to-air coverage of the past three Commonwealth Games as well as the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

The firm has also secured broadcast rights to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

SABC's acting chief operations officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng claimed the deal will allow South Africans across the country the opportunity to watch their favourite athletes in action in Glasgow as they seek to improve on their haul of 12 gold medals from the previous two editions of the Commonwealth Games at Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010.

"As a public service broadcaster we are pleased that we have managed to secure the broadcast rights for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as we serve the needs of sport-loving fans in our country," said Motsoeneng.

"We will utilise our 18 radio stations, broadcasting in 11 official languages and we have also dedicated one of our television channels SABC 2, to be the home of the Commonwealth Games."

Viewers in South Africa are expected to be among a total anticipated global television audience of more than one billion for the Games which are due to take place from July 23 to August 3.

Swimmer Chad le Clos won one of 12 gold medals for South Africa at Delhi 2010
©AFP/Getty Images



Last year, South African based subscription broadcaster SuperSport was named as the exclusive pay-television rights holder for Glasgow 2014 across Sub-Saharan Africa, in a deal that also includes rights for internet and mobile.

"It's good news that the SABC is continuing its long-standing relationship with the Commonwealth Games and will be bringing daily coverage of the Games to millions of people across South Africa," said Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).

"Having worked with the SABC to broadcast the Manchester, Melbourne and Delhi Games, we are very pleased to be able to rely on their experience once again in Glasgow."

The sale of broadcast right packages worldwide is a part of Glasgow 2014's commercial programme which aims to raise around £100million ($166 million/€120 million) in revenue through licensing, merchandise, sponsorship and ticketing.

Glasgow 2014 has broadcast deals already in place with the BBC in the United Kingdom, Network Ten in Australia, TAJ TV in India and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.

In March they announced CBC/Radio Canada as its broadcast partner in North America.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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