{"id":12799,"date":"2023-01-09T10:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T09:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=12799"},"modified":"2023-01-09T10:09:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T09:09:33","slug":"has-dstv-acquired-rights-to-broadcast-the-saudi-professional-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/has-dstv-acquired-rights-to-broadcast-the-saudi-professional-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Has DStv acquired rights to broadcast the Saudi Professional League?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim<\/strong>: A viral tweet stating<\/a> that Digital Satellite Television (DStv) has bought a license to transmit the Saudi Professional League (SPL) after Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdict<\/strong>: False. Our findings show that DSTV has not acquired broadcast rights for the Saudi Professional League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who scored over 700 goals in club football and over 100 in international football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considered influential due to his ster<\/a>ling achievements, Mr Ronaldo recently signed a deal that is said to be worth\u00a0 \u00a3173 million per year with a Saudi Arabian team, \u201cAl-Nassr.\u201d Perceived as a fortune to the club, this signing has since recorded a huge impact. For example, since the footballer was confirmed as Al-Nassr\u2019s new player, the club’s Instagram following<\/a> has exponentially grown to 9.6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this occurrence, there have been several statements getting circulated on social media. One of these is a twe<\/a>et alleging that Digital Satellite Television (DStv) has received a license to show the Saudi Professional League<\/a> (SPL) due to Ronaldo’s contract with Al-Nassr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A screenshot of the claim.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Besides this claim, having gathered 123 retweets and 521 likes, it has also sparked a debate among users who believe and those who do not believe this has happened. This is, therefore, the reason for this fact-check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, DUBAWA visited the verified Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> handle of DStv but could not find any related announcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the television’s earliest Facebook post was based on the Premier League, the Twitter page was about the passing of Peter Squire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
DStv’s recent Facebook and Twitter update.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following this, we discovered (from a keyword search) that Multichoice, the mother company that operates DStv recently, launched a \u201cpop-up channel\u201d channel for the festive season. According to the Guardian newspaper<\/a>, the station only broadcasts from December 15, 2022, till January 3, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of The Guardian’s publication.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, we reached out to DStv customer service via its verified Twitter account. The television stated clearly that it had not acquired the rights to transmit the league. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c@SundayAwosoro Hi, thank you for contacting us. Please note that we do not have broadcasting rights for the League. ~JSL.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our chat with DStv on Twitter shows that this claim is false<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, these rumours can be flagged as false as DStv does not have broadcasting rights to broadcast the Saudi Professional League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A viral tweet stating that Digital Satellite Television (DStv) has bought a license to transmit the Saudi Professional League (SPL) after Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr.\u00a0 Verdict: False. Our findings show that DSTV has not acquired broadcast rights for the Saudi Professional League.  Full Text Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who scored over 700 goals in club football and over 100 in international football.  Considered influential due to his sterling achievements, Mr Ronaldo recently signed a deal that is said to be worth\u00a0 \u00a3173 million per year with a Saudi Arabian team, \u201cAl-Nassr.\u201d Perceived as a fortune to the club, this signing has since recorded a huge impact. For example, since the footballer was confirmed as Al-Nassr\u2019s new player, the club’s Instagram following has exponentially grown to 9.6 million. Following this occurrence, there have been several statements getting circulated on social media. One of these is a tweet alleging that Digital Satellite Television (DStv) has received a license to show the Saudi Professional League (SPL) due to Ronaldo’s contract with Al-Nassr. Besides this claim, having gathered 123 retweets and 521 likes, it has also sparked a debate among users who believe and those who do not believe this has happened. This is, therefore, the reason for this fact-check. Verification Firstly, DUBAWA visited the verified Facebook and Twitter handle of DStv but could not find any related announcements. While the television’s earliest Facebook post was based on the Premier League, the Twitter page was about the passing of Peter Squire. Following this, we discovered (from a keyword search) that Multichoice, the mother company that operates DStv recently, launched a \u201cpop-up channel\u201d channel for the festive season. According to the Guardian newspaper, the station only broadcasts from December 15, 2022, till January 3, 2023. Furthermore, we reached out to DStv customer service via its verified Twitter account. The television stated clearly that it had not acquired the rights to transmit the league.  The response read:  \u201c@SundayAwosoro Hi, thank you for contacting us. Please note that we do not have broadcasting rights for the League. ~JSL.\u201d Conclusion Consequently, these rumours can be flagged as false as DStv does not have broadcasting rights to broadcast the Saudi Professional League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,1574,3705],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3009],"class_list":["post-12799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-media-literacy","category-sport-themes"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-3kr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3009,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"sunday-awosoro","display_name":"Sunday Awosoro","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SPL.jpeg?fit=800%2C362&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12801,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12799\/revisions\/12801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12799"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=12799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}