The Confederation of African Football (CAF), the regional soccer governing body, has awarded African pay-TV heavyweight SuperSport a wide swathe of rights to the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) national teams tournament.
Through a tie-up unveiled today, MultiChoice-owned SuperSport becomes the holder of both English and local-language rights across sub-Saharan Africa for this year's upcoming AFCON, which will take place in Morocco between December 21 and January 18.
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SuperSport will rebrand one of its channels specifically for the AFCON, which will feature live match coverage, expert analysis, top African football legends, and multilingual commentary.
This deal comes as one of the main building blocks of CAF's broadcast rights portfolio for the next edition of its flagship national teams tournament – up until this point, coverage tie-ups for the AFCON had not been forthcoming.
SuperSport also covered the entirety of the last men's AFCON, held in early 2024 in the Ivory Coast, after a late MultiChoice U-turn over acquiring rights to the tournament.
MultiChoice is now owned by French-based media giant Canal+, through a deal worth $1.9 billion that was completed in late September.
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By GlobalDataDavid Mignot, chief executive at Canal+ Africa, has now said: "Our newly formed merger with the MultiChoice Group has already unlocked opportunities and benefits for our customers. The Africa Cup of Nations is a great demonstration of this ambition – bringing together our expertise to offer unprecedented coverage and bring fans closer to the game.”
A deal through which this year's AFCON will also be covered in sub-Saharan Africa by the New World TV broadcaster is already in place, with that agreement having been unveiled in late 2023.
In terms of CAF broadcast activity, meanwhile, late October saw the governing body launch a tender process for media rights covering its intercontinental competitions in both sub-Saharan Africa and in other international markets, for the next season.
These rights encompass the top-tier CAF Champions League and Women’s Champions League, the secondary CAF Confederation Cup, and the 2026 edition of the season-opening CAF Super Cup.
The deadline for submitting offers is November 10 at 12:00 p.m. Egyptian Standard Time, and parties interested in receiving the tender should contact: mediasales@cafonline.com.
Last month also saw SuperSport and French soccer's top-tier Ligue 1 agree a deal, through which SuperSport will broadcast three live Ligue 1 games each week across English-speaking Africa.
