In a week when South Africans all over the world celebrated the 100-day countdown to the kick-off to our biggest sports tournament ever, local celebrations were caught up in a spat between the Hong Kong broadcast-rights holders iCable and the other two broadcasters, ATV and TVB.
In a nutshell, iCable made a successful bid for the broadcast rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, while ATV and TVB declined to bid. iCable then decided that, unlike during the two previous World Cups, they will make the TV broadcast available to TVB and ATV, provided they agree to broadcast the entire iCable programme schedule, including advertisements. TVB and ATB declined and instead wrote to FIFA to try and get clarity on the issue.
At the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, South African Consul-General Ms Tembi Tambo, however played down the spat instead confirming that the local media tussle “will not mar the spectacle half a world away.” (See The Standard article below)
The countdown ceremony at Hong Kong’s Times Square on Wednesday, organised by iCable was not reported on by TVB’s English language Pearl TV during any on their news broadcasts on the evening of the unveiling. Howzit-HongKong.com however, was not able to monitor ATV’s coverage on the evening.
At Times Square on Wednesday, hoards of media with their cameras were to be seen, but like we’ve seen (and reported on) at the Invictus premiere, one cannot say whether they were there for the celebrations or for the opportunity to interview the iCable head honcho about the current 2010 media spat.
Thankfully, as we reported in several posts after the countdown ceremony, the local English print media and in particular the South China Morning Post (SCMP) did a great job on covering this momentous occasion. We noticed that SCMP’s sports reporter Alvin Sallay had another in-deep discussion with Mark Fish in this morning’s Sunday Morning Post (more about that tomorrow). Here’s how the local English-language daily, The Standard reported on Wednesday’s countdown-clock event:
