radio
David Shapshak
In a South African Internet first, the United Cricket Board (UCB) is trying to prevent an online sports “radio” from broadcasting commentary of the country’s cricket Tests, even though no one else is currently doing it.
The usual broadcaster, the SABC, did not run live commentary of the historic first Test against Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein two weeks ago nor will it do so for the return Test in Harare this weekend.
The UCB last week served a lawyer’s letter on Livesport, a Cape Town-based website that uses streaming technology to relay the commentary across the Internet, insisting it stop its commentary.
Livesport made South African history by broadcasting all 41 Rugby World Cup games via the Net – 17 of which were carried by the SABC on its commentary channel, Radio 2000. Livesport has been running radio- style “webcasts” on rugby and cricket internationals since August.
But the UCB, which is still in negotiations with SABC over the five-Test series against England, is not impressed.
Its lawyers, Bell Dewar & Hall, wrote: “The rights surrounding the South African national side and Tests played under the auspices of the UCB are owned by the UCB who contract with various parties to exploit these rights. Your commentary on the Internet is an unlawful breach of the copyright held by the authorised broadcasters who have paid substantial monies to obtain these rights.”
But Livesport has no intention of quitting, says managing director Alison Ward.
“We don’t feel we are in contravention of any rights laws. We feel the broadcast is our own copyright material. We are not commentating from the ground, but from our studios.
“There are many text-based commentary services and the only difference is we are doing it in audio,” she says.
Some of Livesport’s commentators are regular sports correspondents for the Mail & Guardian