StarTimes agrees non-exclusive Major League Wrestling deal in sub-Saharan Africa

Pan-African pay-television broadcaster StarTimes has acquired the rights to US-based Major League Wrestling’s weekly flagship show, MLW Fusion.

The deal sees StarTimes secure the rights on a non-exclusive basis to the hour-long programme.

MLW will now be broadcast across the 10 African countries in which StarTimes operates, comprising: Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

In its domestic market, MLW has been making moves toward providing pay-per-view content. Sports Illustrated reported that MLW’s first PPV event will be held in Chicago on November 2. The event will be shown on cable and digital platforms across the United States and Canada.

MLW also signed a deal with digital television broadcaster FreeSports for the MLW Fusion rights in the UK and Ireland in April 2019.

StarTimes has been highly acquisitive in the last 12 months, picking up a range of predominantly football-related properties and capitalising on the financial difficulties faced by regional competitor Kwesé TV.