South Africa is the only country on the continent which has to pay for the television rights to screen next year's World Cup soccer finals.
The rights have been bought for an undisclosed amount by e.tv, which has also bought the radio rights.
President of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, said every nation in Africa would be granted free TV access to next year's World Cup finals in Japan and Korea with the exception of South Africa.
He did not give any reasons, but the chief executive of the SA Football Association, Danny Jordaan, pointed out that most countries in Africa have one television service while South Africa has three.
At the last World Cup, SABC and Supersport shared the tournament with the national broadcaster showing the Bafana matches and the play-offs. This time newcomer e.tv has beaten both to the punch and is eager to share some of the costs as long as it's not with SABC.
"We are only interested in speaking to companies who have channels on satellite, like Supersport International," said Kanthan Pillay of e.tv, who added that his company would like to sell the radio rights to SABC.
Supersport chief executive Heinrich Enslin said there had been talks with e.tv, but nothing has been finalised. He confirmed that the network was interested in obtaining some of the games for the satellite service.
The government, however, would like to see e.tv and SABC collaborate on TV because e.tv does not reach as many parts of the country as the national broadcaster. Both broadcasters have been encouraged to discuss the options of sharing transmissions.
A spokesman said Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour was eager for the entire country to be able to access the World Cup on television.
E.tv's "footprint" is smaller than that of SABC TV, a spokesman for Sentech, the transmitter company, confirmed.
Meanwhile a dispute in Britain has been settled with BBC and ITV agreeing to share the screening of the tournament.
The two British networks are expected to pay just over R2 billion for the rights to the next two World Cups.
A spokesman for German media giant Kirch, which is selling the rights in Europe, would not confirm the price but said the company was "very satisfied". He said the deal was the "biggest sports rights deal for terrestrial TV" in Britain.
The agreement follows months of wrangling, with Kirch originally demanding more than three times the R670 million the BBC and ITV were offering.
Chief executive of the English FA, Adam Crozier, described the asking price by Kirch as "obscene".
"It doesn't bear any relation to market reality. The matches are being played early in the morning and that will have a severe effect on the audiences in European countries," he said.
There is a seven-hour difference between South Africa and Japan/Korea, and Britain will be an hour later next June when the finals will be played.