Television sports rights beyond the West: The cases of India and South Africa

The main objective of this article is to highlight the important role played by television sports rights in two significant non-Western media markets, India and South Africa. Specifically, this article highlights how key trends commonly identified in Western countries have also been apparent in India and South Africa, namely, the use of exclusive sports rights as a ‘battering ram’ to open up pay-TV markets and the resulting escalation in the value of premium rights. Just as significantly, the cases of India and South Africa also demonstrate the importance of sports broadcasting regulation in two main areas: first, major events legislation, designed to guarantee that certain major sporting events remain available on free-to-air television, and, second, the application of competition law in order to limit the use of sports rights as a source of market power within pay TV.