The Iris Sport Media (ISM) agency, rights distributor to the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) across Sub-Saharan Africa, has secured rights deals with 30 broadcasters in the region on the eve of the tournament’s opening match.
ISM announced today that it had completed its portfolio of broadcasters that will provide coverage in the region, including pay-TV heavyweights SuperSport and StarTimes in English-speaking pan-African territories, while New World TV secured rights in pan-African French-speaking territories.
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Azam TV now holds rights to the tournament in East-African territories in English and Swahili, while Zap acquired rights in Angola and Mozambique in Portuguese.
Free-to-air (FTA) coverage has been secured in 25 countries so far, including with SportyTV (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa), NCCI (Cote d’Ivoire), RTS (Senegal), New World TV (Togo), ORTM (Mali), and RTG (Guinea).
ISM picked up the distribution rights across Sub-Saharan Africa from global rights holder DAZN in February, covering FTA as well as pay-TV rights for the tournament’s inaugural edition, which is being held in the US from June 14 to July 13.
DAZN will also provide FTA coverage of the competition in every market globally, including across Africa.
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By GlobalDataTo maximize distribution and exposure, Iris partnered with the Marketing & Media Solutions and PC Plus Group firms.
Both of them are experienced operators across Sub-Saharan Africa – indeed, they have been distributing FTA rights to African qualifiers for the FIFA 2026 World Cup in the region, as well as World Athletics events.
The only other deal agreed in Africa for the Club World Cup concerns Egypt, where MBC Group, the Saudi-owned FTA broadcaster, struck a sub-licensing deal directly with DAZN.
DAZN picked up the CWC rights last December, for around $1 billion, and promptly set out to secure regional and national sublicensing deals across the globe to enhance the event’s distribution.
Before DAZN stepped in, FIFA had struggled to secure a broadcast partner, with many traditional media giants unwilling to pick up the rights as the competition had proved extremely controversial with many of soccer’s major stakeholders.
For DAZN, ISM has also brokered several sub-licensing deals in Central America, particularly with broadcasters in Costa Rica (Teletica), El Salvador (Canal 4 TCS), Guatemala (TV Azteca), Honduras (Televicentro), Nicaragua (Canal 13), and Panama (Next TV).
Iris has also been the sales agent for African 2026 World Cup qualifiers for broadcasters in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with a deal to that effect having been disclosed in November 2023.
Meanwhile, Antenna TV, the Greek commercial broadcaster, has secured rights in the country to the tournament.
The deal will see Antenna TV broadcast all 63 games of the CWC across its channels in Greece with localized commentary for all matches, highlights, and shoulder content.
As part of the deal, up to 15 matches will be broadcast nationally on Antenna’s network ANT1 and antenna.gr OTT service during the tournament’s inaugural edition.
