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e.tv this week secured the exclusive South African broadcasting rights to the 2002 FIFA World Cup from Prisma Sports & Media which is part of the KirchMedia Group. The FIFA World Cup is to be held in Korea and Japan during June next year.

Chief Executive of e.tv Marcel Golding, who negotiated the deal last week, said: ‘The World Cup is our first major sport acquisition. This comes on the back of very significant audience growth for us during the past year. The FIFA World Cup will further increase our audience share and entrench our position as the channel that provides the best programming.’

Golding said that the channel was pleased that it could continue to provide the best programming in the market.

The channel’s viewership has posted a meteoric rise of 42% over the past year, which translates to 7 261 000 ‘yesterday’ viewers. Of stations that broadcast primarily in English, e.tv is now undoubtedly the biggest – with 168% more viewers than M-Net and 1,2 million more viewers than SABC 3.

e.tv’s viewership has grown across every LSM category with significant increases at the top end of the market — LSM 8, 9 and 10. Across these categories e.tv has 2 158 000 viewers, with SABC 3 and M-Net trailing at 2 133 000 and 1 903 000 respectively.

Golding said that e.tv’s latest programming coup will give viewers round the clock coverage of one of the world’s biggest sports events. e.tv will have official broadcaster status to the World Cup and will secure local broadcast sponsors for the event.

e.tv simultaneously secured the exclusive broadcast rights to the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Golding said e.tv was also pleased to have had the opportunity to deal with KirchMedia which is one of the world’s most prestigious media companies.

Richard Dorfman, Senior Vice President of Prisma Sports & Media, said: ‘We are very pleased to be working with e.tv on this prestigious project. We are confident that e.tv will provide the most comprehensive and compelling coverage of the FIFA World Cup for all of South Africa’s many football fans.’

For further information please contact:

Kanthan Pillay
e.TV
Head of Corporate Affairs
083 419 1222