Sub-Saharan Africa

Indian sports and entertainment pay-television channel Sony Six has acquired broadcasting rights in the Indian sub-continent to the 2014-15 edition of South Africa’s domestic T20 Challenge cricket tournament.

The Kombat Sport pay-television channel has agreed a deal to broadcast the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts series in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and sub-Saharan Africa in 2015 and 2016.

Sub-Saharan Africa pay-television operator SuperSport has stepped in to acquire the free-to-air rights in the region to England’s Premier League after local rights-holder, Optima Sports Management International, defaulted on its payments.

SuperSport, the pay-television broadcaster that operates in Sub-Saharan Africa, has acquired rights for the 2014 edition of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament.

The TV Media Sport agency has secured the television distribution rights for the 2014-15 season of Serie A, the top division of Italian football, across sub-Saharan Africa.

SuperSport, the pay-television broadcaster that operates in Sub-Saharan Africa, has acquired rights for the TNA Impact Wrestling series.

The CAA Eleven agency completed a host of new deals for Uefa European Qualifiers rights at the end of July, with strong results in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Pay-television broadcaster SuperSport, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa, will show coverage of the MultiChoice Diski Challenge, a new football competition for South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) academy teams.

Pay-television broadcaster SuperSport, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa, has acquired rights for qualifying matches ahead of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations national football team tournament.

South Africa national team football matches will be shown on free-to-air television in the country, according to pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV, which has agreed a six-year rights deal with the South African Football Association (SAFA).

The South African Football Association’s new media rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV would appear to be in doubt after public-service broadcaster the SABC questioned the validity of reports that the agreement had been finalised.

New pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV has acquired media rights in South Africa for the country’s national football team matches.

The 3Vision Distribution agency has secured a deal to distribute rights for the 2014 Cosafa Cup, which features national football teams from sub-Saharan Africa.

Digital-terrestrial operator StarTimes has launched a new sports channel, StarTimes Sport 2, in South Africa.

The Fox International Channels broadcast subsidiary of media company 21st Century Fox has rebranded the Setanta Africa channels under the Fox Sports banner following last year’s deal to acquire the pay-television sports broadcaster, which operates in the sub-Saharan region of the continent.

South African public-service broadcaster the SABC is facing a shortfall of more than R500m (€34.4m/$46.7m) in its sports coverage in the 2014-15 financial year, according to acting chief executive Tian Olivier.