No IPL on South African TV this year after Viacom-SuperSport negotiation falls through

For the last 15 years, SuperSport TV held the rights to the Indian Premier League in South Africa and the league had established a kind of hegemony there. However, for the 2023 season, South African fans will be devoid of watching the tournament on TV as SuperSport and Viacom18, who held the rights to IPL in the Sub-Saharan region, couldn’t reach an agreement.

"SuperSport previously held broadcast rights to the Indian Premier League," a SuperSport spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. "Commercial discussions with the rights holder for the next cycle of rights have unfortunately been unsuccessful and SuperSport will therefore not broadcast the IPL as of this year's edition."

Apart from Kolkata Knight Riders, every single franchise in the Indian Premier League has at least one South African player this year. The likes of Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, David Miller, and Rilee Rossouw are big shots in South Africa and their presence invariably increased the viewership in the region. 

Currently, Viacom18 doesn’t have a direct presence in many places they have IPL rights to, like Australia, New Zealand and England, but licensing deals have already been done in order to ensure that people in those regions can enjoy the IPL on TV.