LaLiga closes sub-Saharan African rights deal with StarTimes

LaLiga has finalised an agreement for the sale of its French-language media rights in sub-Saharan Africa with pay-television broadcaster StarTimes.

LaLiga, the governing body and rights-holder of the top two tiers of Spanish domestic football, had already agreed an extension to its English-language rights in the region with pay-television Multichoice’s sport broadcasting subsidiary SuperSport.

Both broadcasters’ deals cover the four-season cycle from 2020-21 to 2023-24 and are platform neutral. The inventories comprise all 380 matches from the top-tier Primera División as well as the promotion play-offs from the second-tier Segunda División.

StarTimes will broadcast matches from the two leagues across 47 territories on its linear sports channels, while it will exploit streaming rights through its StarTimes ON OTT platform.

French-language pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus Afrique previously held the French-language rights for the five seasons between the 2015-16 and 2019-20 seasons.

Digital terrestrial broadcaster Zap held the Portuguese-language rights in Angola, and Tanzanian free-to-air broadcaster Azam held some non-exclusive rights in its domestic market.

LaLiga issued a rights tender in the region over a year ago with bidders were invited to submit offers by July 2, 2019.