French soccer’s top-flight Ligue 1 has secured expanded broadcast coverage in sub-Saharan Africa courtesy of a new agreement with international broadcast heavyweight SuperSport.
SuperSport, owned by South Africa’s Multichoice, will broadcast three live Ligue 1 games each week across English-speaking Africa, which includes prominent markets such as Nigeria (Africa’s most populous nation), Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, and more.
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This deal will also extend to Portuguese-speaking territories in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique.
The deal was inaugurated on Saturday (October 18) with the fixture between Paris Saint-Germain and RC Strasbourg.
Indeed, Ligue 1 boasts the largest roster of African national team players in Europe’s top leagues, with over 200 from sub-Saharan Africa in particular, while even more represent other countries such as France but have African heritage, making it perhaps Ligue 1’s biggest foreign market.
For SuperSport, this means interest in players such as Ernest Nuamah (Lyon) and Mohammed Salisu (Monaco) of Ghana, Terem Moffi (Nice) and Moses Simon (Paris FC) of Nigeria, and Clinton Mata (Lyon) of Angola.
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By GlobalDataThis tie-up also cements French media giant Canal+’s domination of Ligue 1’s broadcast outlook in Africa.
Canal+ recently took control of Multichoice, completing a long-awaited $1.9 billion merger that unites the South African media company with Canal+’s existing Africa business.
That existing Africa business includes Canal+’s control of Ligue 1’s rights across French-speaking Africa, renewed in 2024, which it holds through the 2028-29 campaign.
Prior to the takeover, Canal+ still operated in over 25 African countries, both directly and through a network of wholly and partially-owned subsidiaries, all of which accounted for over 8.1 million subscribers on the continent as of the end of 2023.
The broadcaster, through its Canal Plus Afrique arm, has shown Ligue 1 in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of the 2018-19 season, after it purchased the rights for the cycle through the 2023-24 season for around €80 million ($95.4 million) per year.
By adding English-speaking Africa to its portfolio, Canal+ has cemented its media dominance over the market, and is already bolstering its portfolio with the Ligue 1 rights acquisition.
While Ligue 1 and Canal+ are still in a state of acrimony in France over previous failed media rights agreements (Canal+ refused to bid for the Ligue 1 domestic rights in 2024 over prior disagreements, and failed to reach a carriage deal earlier this year), on the international front, it is clear that Canal Plus sees Ligue 1 as a suite of valuable rights it cannot do without, and equally that its attempts to freeze out the competition do not stretch to foreign markets.
