At a press conference held at SAFA House in Johannesburg yesterday, Monday, 31 March 2008,, the two organisations announced that access to the broadcast signal for the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 World Cup will be granted free of charge for non-commercial public viewing events.
Head of FIFA TV Niclas Ericsson told journalists, “There will be no licence required for the projection of the matches in a non-commercial environment as long as the organisers comply with the terms and conditions stipulated in the non-commercial public viewing regulations published today.”
To put it briefly, organisations such as schools, hospitals, municipal institutions and companies or individuals that wish to set up big screens platforms to invite many people to watch games, may do so without paying a cent – as long as they do not turn those events into commercial ventures where they would ask for an entrance fee, promote their various products or raise funds for charity.
Ericsson warned people not to link the 2010 TV public viewing events with commercial ventures as the practice will violate intellectual property rights and put sponsors' interests at risk.
SABC CEO Dali Mpofu said, “This is a wonderful opportunity to bring the games to the football-loving masses of our people and to unite the nation. By doing so, we wish to increase the excitement of the World Cup and demonstrate our commitment to mobilising maximum support for Bafana Bafana.
“Now local authorities can take up the challenge and strive to take the game to rural communities living in very remotes places across the country.”
Asked whether fan parks will have to abide by the same rules, Mpofu replied: “Not at all. We are currently in discussion with host cities to see how best we can regulate the public viewing in terms of fan parks, and we will make the announcements in due course.”
The SABC, which in 2006 secured the rights to broadcast the 2009 Confederations Cup, 2010 World Cup and 2014 World Cup games from FIFA, said it will support more than 200 public viewing sites.
Local Organising Committee (LOC) spokesperson Tim Modise told the media that his organisation, in conjunction with the SABC, will embark on an education campaign to create awareness about the regulations.
For more information about public viewing regulations, go to www.fifa.com.
