Our Reporter, Abuja
It was pure relief and celebrations by football fans across Africa as sports broadcast giant, SuperSports, announced Wednesday its readiness to broadcast live all the 52 matches of TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, taking place in Ivory Coast.
The tournament kicks off on January 13, 2024.
Earlier, SuperSport had announced that it would regrettably not broadcast the matches as MultiChoice Group, its parent company, failed to acquire the broadcasting rights for the African Cup Of Nations (AFCON).
The broadcast giant said its SuperSport channels were therefore unlikely to show the competition billed to commence on January 13 in Ivory Coast.
Recall that in December 2023, CAF announced a “historic media rights agreement” with New World TV, a little known Togolese audio-visual group, to broadcast all the federation’s 13 competitions to the sub-Saharan African audience for two years.
But in a surprise turnaround, albeit a welcomed one, SuperSport announced Wednesday that it will broadcast all 52 matches of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Ivory Coast 2023 (Afcon) live after MultiChoice secured the rights to broadcast the continent’s showpiece tournament, which kicks off on 13 January 2024 until 11 February 2024.
MultiChoice said it had “reached a commercially viable agreement with rightsholders, New World TV (NWTV), to broadcast the 34th edition of Africa’s premier men’s football competition taking place in Ivory Coast.”
According to Rendani Ramovha, SuperSport CEO, “We are delighted to be able to showcase the best of African football live to our viewers.”
Corroborating the development, Nimonka Kolani, Managing Director of NWTV, the original owners of the broadcast rights to the tournament, said: “By securing the rights to CAN 2023 under the leadership of Dr Patrice Motsepe, SuperSport and NWTV prove that nothing is more important than the happiness of Africans who wish to follow the exploits of their favourite team during the biggest football competition in Africa.”
Celebrating the breakthrough, SuperSport, promised to “bring its unrivalled coverage to all the games, with matches available on DStv as well as GOtv across Africa.”
