SuperSport may miss out on 2027 Afcon rights - TimesLIVE
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) is set to announce the winning bid for rights to broadcast the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be hosted in East Africa next year — and SuperSport are in danger of missing out.
The Sunday Times understands at least 15 companies have expressed interest in obtaining the rights to flight the 2027 edition of the competition to be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17.
While it is believed that SuperSport is among the interested parties, the pay channel is not among the top candidates to bag the prestigious competition. “Instead, the contest is between two European companies who have put in big offers,” said an insider with intimate details of the process.
“That is New World TV and Sport tv. They are in a neck-and-neck race to bag the rights of the crown jewel of Caf’s competition.”
SuperSport — whose rights to purchase are now managed by Canal+ at their headquarters in Paris following the buyout of MultiChoice by the French company — are understood to have put a bid, “but their offer was way short of what others have put through,” the source said.
“The value of media rights has gone up by over 150%. Caf sells Afcon rights per tournament. SuperSport paid around R105m to acquire rights for the last edition in Morocco, which is a small change when you consider that beIN Sports pays around R1.5bn per Afcon.
“There are huge bids on the table, and that goes to show how huge the interest in African football as a product in demand. The beIN Sports caters for the Middle East, France and South Pacific regions, while IMG has secured rights for their Europe and South America markets. Both share the rights for North America.
“As things stand, SuperSport might lose Afcon rights as they’re up against [a] bidder offering almost two times what they are paying. No, the ball is in the SuperSport or Canal+ court. We have sent them notice that we don’t intend to renew at the previous rate. Free to air is now worth R2.2bn per Afcon, making Caf less reliant on SuperSport.”
For the Afcon in Morocco, SuperSport obtained a sub-licence from New World TV (NWTV), an agent that holds exclusive media rights for Caf.
Through NWTV, SuperSport obtained a sub-licence for the last Afcon in Morocco, which enabled the pay channel to flight comprehensive Afcon coverage to millions of English- and Portuguese-speaking audiences in Africa.
Head of TV and broadcasting (commercial) at Caf, Lux September, said the body has neared the conclusion of the process of evaluation and will announce the winning bid in the coming weeks.
“At this stage, I cannot comment on this process until it is finalised. We’re in a very exciting stage. In the last three years, there has been a significant global interest in the Caf commercial rights. Currently, we’re in an exciting period of finalising several commercial agreements in relation to Afcon 2027,” he said.
“The Caf president [Patrice Motsepe] is very hands-on, working together with the Caf commercial team and the secretariat in ensuring that we achieve the maximum financial gains on behalf of the 54 member associations.”
The Sunday Times requested comment from SuperSport but received no response.
