Fifa, football’s global governing body, has assigned media rights in sub-Saharan Africa for a host of its national team tournaments.
The rights cover Fifa’s 2017-18 cycle of events and cover this year’s Confederations Cup, U20 World Cup, U17 World Cup and Beach Soccer World Cup, as well as next year’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup and U17 Women’s World Cup.
Telecommunications firm Econet Media has been awarded free-to-air and pay-television rights to the 2018 World Cup across sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa. Econet Media has also been awarded free-to-air rights in the same territories to other 2017-18 Fifa events.
Pay-television broadcaster SuperSport has acquired rights to the World Cup and other events in all sub-Saharan African territories, while South African public-service broadcaster SABC has picked up free-to-air rights in the country.
Pan-African pay-television operator StarTimes has been assigned rights to the World Cup in all territories of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa. StarTimes was also granted rights to other 2017-18 events, with the exception of the Confederations Cup in South Africa.
Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has been awarded World Cup rights in all territories except South Africa and Nigeria.
The 42 territories covered by the deals are: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.