The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has reached an agreement with Mutlichoice to air the Cricket World Cup 2023 at the last hour- the tournament kicked off yesterday.

On Tuesday, ZiMoja reported that the SABC was battling to reach an agreement with Multichoice over the rights to televise the Cricket World Cup 2023.

Mmoni Seapolelo who is the Acting Group Executive: Corporate Affairs and Marketing confirmed the news.

"The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is pleased to announce that the Corporation will be broadcasting the Cricket World Cup 2023 following further negotiations with the rights holder, Multichoice (SuperSport) for the sub-licensing of the Cricket World Cup 2023 free-to-air broadcasting rights," the statement reads, adding that "Both parties have reached an agreement that enables the SABC to fulfil its public service broadcaster's mandate of broadcasting sports of national interest as well ensuring that all Cricket fans enjoy the much-anticipated world's spectacle.

The SABC will broadcast all South African games, including the semi-final, final and closing ceremony.

"The public can catch the Cricket World Cup 2023 for free on the following SABC platforms, SABC 3 (DSTV 193, DTT and Analogue), sabc.com and SABC Plus."

Seapolela further said,"Regrettably, MultiChoice has restricted the broadcast of the Cricket World Cup 2023 on the OVHD (eMedia Platform). The SABC has formally logged a complaint with the Competition Commission regarding this behaviour of Multichoice. To mitigate the block out of the Cricket on OVHD, the SABC approached eMedia to jointly acquire the Cricket World Cup 2023 rights from MultiChoice to ensure all eMedia OVHD customers are able to view these games. Unfortunately, eMedia has not agreed to this."