Ghana’s Max TV secures Premier League rights from Infront

Ghanaian free-to-air broadcaster Max TV has acquired the rights to broadcast the English Premier League matches on free-to-air television during the 2019-20 season.

The deal is a sub-licence from the Infront agency, which holds the free-to-air distribution rights in sub-Saharan Africa, and allows Max TV to broadcast one match non-exclusively per matchweek.

Max TV said that it will air one of the 3pm fixtures each Saturday on its free-to-air platform, while it will also show a handful of Premier League-produced magazine programmes.

Infront completed a similar deal with South African free-to-air broadcaster OpenView last month.

Infront acquired the free-to-air rights to the Premier League in May and tasked its nascent Paris-based Africa division with selling them on. The agency hired Christophe Van Rothem, previously a leading media rights executive at Lagardère Sports Africa, to head up the division. Infront’s agreement runs from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

In 2017, pan-African pay-television broadcaster SuperSport bought the exclusive pay-television rights to all Premier League matches and free-to-air rights outside the Saturday 3pm kick-off slot in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, for the 2019-22 cycle.