DSTV drops Winter Olympics coverage

With the Olympic Winter Games starting in Milan, Italy, on Friday, it’s emerged that pay-TV broadcaster DSTV’s SuperSport will not broadcast the event.

Though South Africa is sending just five athletes to the Games, it’s their largest-ever contingent competing at the quadrennial showpiece event.

According to reports, MultiChoice says no official media rights holder is listed for South Africa.

A spokesperson for MultiChoice told MyBroadband that there wouldn’t be live coverage or highlights on Catch Up.

South African Athletes Compete as Olympic Medal Values Surge by 300% Due to Metal Price Increases

The South African athletes competing at the event are Lara Markthaler (giant slalom, slalom and alpine skiing), Nicole Burger (skeleton), Matt Smith (cross-country skiing), Malica Malherbe (freestyle skiing) and Thomas Weir (alpine skiing).

On Thursday, it was revealed that the price of metals has driven up the worth of Olympic medals by around 300%.

However, the rise in value of gold and silver, and to a much lesser degree, bronze has driven up the total cost to produce medals for all the events.

Individually, the medals themselves are not worth as much as you would expect, as a gold will be worth roughly R35,700, a silver R20,755, while the bronze will pale in comparison at R88.12.

The reason for the stark difference for bronze is that both the other medals are made up of primarily silver - with the gold simply coated with a small amount of gold on the surface.

In fact, the silver and gold medals are identical in composition but for the 6 grams of gold on the surface of the first-place prize.

The cost works out to R13,6m for the gold medals, R7,9m for the silvers, and R33,661 for the relatively cheap bronze medals.

@Michael_Sherman

IOL Sport