SABC dodges World Cup blackout bullet (again), this time for the Cricket World Cup

The SABC has once again narrowly avoided the possibility of a complete blackout of a national team involved in a World Cup, this time the Proteas in cricket's quadrennial showpiece in India. This is after the national broadcaster came to yet another 11th-hour agreement with pay channel Multichoice for the rights to broadcast the tournament on Thursday.

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Just on Tuesday morning, Multichoice released a statement detailing the breakdown in negotiations with the SABC as well as voicing their disappointment at the national broadcaster walking away from talks from what they felt were "significantly reduced commercial terms, given its current circumstances".

But as of Saturday, the SABC will be able to air all nine of the Proteas' games at the World Cup, one semi-final and the final as per the latest agreement between the two parties.

This is the second time in a month that the SABC has been granted a last-minute reprieve, with the two broadcasters having gone through the same gruelling, lowballing dance to land the rights to broadcast the ongoing Rugby World Cup in France. Having pleaded poverty during the negotiations, the national broadcaster then got three sponsors, Hollywood Bets, the SAB and Pineapple Insurance, to help them televise the Springboks' defence of the Webb Ellis Cup.

SABC Chief Operating Officer Ian Plaatjes explained what had changed between Tuesday and Thursday: "The only thing that has changed is that Multichoice has accepted the previous offer that the SABC had put on the table. We started this negotiation two years ago. A couple of months ago, we picked up the discussion with them to try and get both the cricket