I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially after the SA Rugby and CANAL+ renewal announcement this week. We celebrate the Springboks winning World Cups, we talk about rugby being part of who we are as South Africans, and then we lock the games behind a paywall that most of the country simply cannot afford.
Let’s be honest about who actually has DStv Premium. It’s not the kid in Khayelitsha or Limpopo who could one day be the next Cheslin Kolbe. It’s not the family in a rural town who gathers around a TV on a Saturday afternoon. The Springboks are supposed to belong to all of us, but right now they belong to whoever can pay MultiChoice’s subscription fee.
SuperSport has had a near-monopoly on major SA rugby for years, covering Springbok tests, the URC, the Currie Cup. The SABC keeps getting dragged into these sub-licensing disputes, often blocked by contract clauses that exclude platforms like Openview and eMedia even when a deal is technically reached. So even when there’s an apparent compromise, millions are still shut out.
The numbers make the problem obvious. SuperSport averages around 1.2 to 2 million unique viewers for URC matches. That sounds impressive until you remember we are a country of 60 million people. When SABC has aired rugby, they’ve pulled strong audiences fast, over 400,000 viewers for a French Top 14 match on a platform that’s essentially free. Imagine what Springbok test viewership would look like on genuinely accessible platforms.
The argument SA Rugby always reaches for is financial sustainability. Fair enough, broadcast revenue matters. But the UK and Australia solved this problem decades ago with anti-siphoning laws that protect certain events of national importance for free-to-air. You can have commercial rights deals AND ensure the public still gets to watch their national team. It’s not either/or.
What we’re trading away for short-term broadcast income is the next generation of fans and players. A kid who never watches the Springboks isn’t going to grow up dreaming of playing for them. Grassroots development, talent pipelines, national identity around the sport… all of it depends on people actually being able to see the game.
Rugby keeps saying it wants to grow in communities that were historically excluded from the sport. You cannot do that while simultaneously locking the national team’s games behind a paywall those same communities cannot access. At some point SA Rugby has to decide whether it wants to be a sport for all South Africans or a premium product for subscribers.
I think we know which one is better for the long-term health of the game.