SuperSport swoops for MLS rights

Pay-television sports broadcaster SuperSport, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa, has agreed a rights deal for North America’s Major League Soccer competition.

Under the deal brokered by the MP & Silva agency, SuperSport will show its first MLS matches from this weekend’s round of fixtures on August 4.

The deal encompasses all of the current MLS season, ending on December 8, and runs until November 2014 within SuperSport’s sub-Saharan Africa and adjacent islands territory.

SuperSport will show a minimum of three matches per week, plus eight play-off encounters and the MLS final.

SuperSport’s acquisition of MLS rights comes in the wake of US sports broadcaster ESPN’s withdrawal from the African market, which came into effect on Tuesday.