By Sports Editor
Following Multichoice’s announcement that it won’t be broadcasting the African biennial tournament, Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), on its DStv channels days before the start of the football fiesta, Nigerians have been expressing their anger, surprise and even confusion.
Multichoice, owners of DStv, had broadcasted every edition of the continental showpiece since 1992.
“SuperSport Channel will not broadcast the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 scheduled for January 13th to February 11th, 2024, because the channel has not secured the rights to broadcast the tournament,” it said in a statement this week.
The DStv blackout is not unconnected to the new order in the African football television space after Togolese broadcaster, New World TV, won the Free-to-Air and Pay TV rights to all CAF competitions in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
The rights were previously held by the African Union of Broadcasters, SuperSport International, and Canal Plus.
It was reported that New World TV and CAF entered into a three-year deal as the rights holders of 13 competitions in total, which will include the 2023 and 2025 AFCON tournaments across 46 countries in the region, including South Africa.
This means that the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and free-to-air stations in the 46 countries looking to broadcast the AFCON and any other CAF competitions would now have to sublicense the rights through New World TV.
Here are four main platforms Nigerians can turn to:
Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
Nigerians can turn to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the country’s most prominent television station to watch the 2023 AFCON.
NTA has been broadcasting live happenings at every AFCON on its popular NTA Sports 24, free to air.
StarTimes
StarTimes subscribers in Nigeria can also watch all 52 matches of the 2023 AFCON live on StarTimes sports channels or stream via the StarTimes ON mobile app.
New World TV
In December 2023, New World TV, a Togo-based network, secured an exclusive three-year deal with CAF to air all of its competitions, including AFCON, across 46 African countries until 2025.
This might provide an option for viewers in Nigeria to watch the games.
Ziggo Sport
Nigerian Football fans in the diaspora can enjoy all tournament matches on Ziggo Sport, a Dutch pay-TV network.
Ziggo Sport secured an exclusive right to broadcast live action of two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, 2023 in Ivory Coast and 2025 in Morocco
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