Nigerians have expressed their outrage, surprise, and even perplexity following Multichoice’s declaration that it will not be broadcasting the African biannual competition, Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), on its DStv channels days before the start of the football fiesta.
Since 1992, Multichoice, the owner of DStv, had shown every edition of the continental extravaganza.
This Thursday, the station released a statement stating, “SuperSport Channel has not secured the rights to broadcast the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023, scheduled for January 13th to February 11th, 2024. As a result, the channel will not broadcast the tournament.”
The new structure in the African football television market, which was established when Togolese broadcaster New World TV secured the Pay TV and Free-to-Air rights to all CAF competitions in Sub-Saharan Africa, is not unrelated to the DStv blackout.
The African Union of Broadcasters, SuperSport International, and Canal Plus had previously owned the rights.
As the rights holders of 13 competitions in total, including the 2023 and 2025 AFCON championships spanning 46 countries in the continent, including South Africa, it was reported that New World TV and CAF had signed a three-year deal.
This implies that in order to broadcast the AFCON and any other CAF competitions, free-to-air stations in the 46 countries including the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) will now need to sublicense the rights through New World TV.
Here are four main platforms Nigerians can turn to:
Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
To watch the 2023 AFCON, Nigerians can tune in to the nation’s most well-known television network, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
Every AFCON, NTA has been providing free live coverage of the events on its well-liked NTA Sports 24 channel.
StarTimes
All 52 AFCON 2023 matches can be streamed live on StarTimes sports channels or via the StarTimes ON mobile app for Nigerian StarTimes customers.
New World TV
Network New World TV, situated in Togo, signed an exclusive three-year agreement with CAF in December 2023 to broadcast all of its competitions, including AFCON, throughout 46 African nations until 2025.
This could give Nigerian spectators a way to see the games.
Ziggo Sport
Ziggo Sport, a Dutch pay-TV network, broadcasts all tournament matches for Nigerian football enthusiasts living abroad.
An exclusive broadcasting rights to both the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast and the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco have been obtained by Ziggo Sport.
