Swiss-based agency Infront Sports has agreed a deal with Olympic governing body the International Olympic Committee to market free-to-air rights in Sub-Saharan African to every Olympic property until 2024.
The five-and-a-half-year deal comprises rights to the next two Summer Olympics – Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 – along with next year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, France, and the Beijing Winter Olympics and Dakar Youth Olympics in 2022.
Infront’s deal includes exclusive free-to-air television and radio rights, while the digital rights also contained in the agreement are “included in the free-to-air package but are not exclusive” across the 46 nations in the territory, the agency told SportBusiness Media on Tuesday.
It will also produce a dedicated television feed across Sub-Saharan Africa to cover the Olympic content as part of the deal with the IOC.
The agency negotiated a similar deal recently with the English Premier League for free-to-air rights across the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa in a three-year contract from the 2019-2020 to 2021-2022.
This marks the second deal in the region IOC has completed in the past week after it announced it had penned a content deal with pay-television broadcaster SuperSport around the OTT Olympic Channel.
Infront’s parent company Chinese conglomerate Wanda Sports announced last week that it is set to issue an IPO in the US for an estimated $500m.