SABC backers pay R50m to flight Afcon
Broadcaster backed by Hollywoodbets and McDonald’s to ensure South Africans can watch the biennial soccer showpiece
● Two companies came to the rescue — to the tune of about R50m — to ensure that the SABC secured broadcast rights that will enable South Africans to watch the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) soccer matches.
The Sunday Times can reveal that Hollywood Bets and McDonald’s are the broadcaster’s main backers. .
The biennial showpiece in Ivory Coast gets under way on Saturday with a group A clash between the host nation and Equatorial Guinea at Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan.
“The SABC is happy that we have two headline sponsors who covered the costs of about R50m — a betting company and a fastfood outlet. As things stand, it’s all systems go,” the state broadcaster said.
The rights were bought from New World TV, a Togolese company which obtained sub-Saharan free-to-air and pay-TV English language rights for Confederation of African Football (Caf) tournaments in November.
The matches will be shown on the SABC 1 and 3 channels as well as on SABC Plus and the SABC Sport streaming platform. The matches will also be broadcast on all of SABC’s nine African-language radio stations.
The SABC has secured the rights to flight all 52 matches, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the biennial premier continental competition which will see 24 nations contest for African supremacy from January 13 to February 11.
The deal package includes the Women’s Afcon in Morocco next year, interclub Champions League matches — men and women as well as qualifiers for Afcon 2025, among others.
Caf concluded the deal with the SABC on Thursday and insisted that all the top matches be shown on linear television. Linear
TV offers a predetermined line-up of shows and broadcasts that follow a set timetable as opposed to OTT (over-the-top) TV that delivers streamed content via internet-connected devices.
SuperSport Channel, which flighted the 2001 edition of the competition, will not show the matches of the crown jewel of Caf competitions. “We could not reach agreement on commercial terms with the rightsholder,” SuperSport communications manager Sibusiso Mjikeliso told the Sunday Times yesterday.
“Due to the structural nature and economics of the pay-TV business, we do not expect it to have any material impact on our business. We will communicate should there be any further developments in this regard.”
MultiChoice, which owns SuperSport, said in a statement on Thursday that it “remains committed to ensuring football fans across Africa continue to enjoy unrivalled access to entertainment and football games available on DStv and GOtv platforms, including the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Zambian Super League and many more of football’s prestigious competitions”.
A Caf source said “SuperSport never asked for the price” of Afcon 2023 TV rights, adding that “in 2021 Caf brought SuperSport into the fold for the Afcon 2021. Because of how successful that collaboration was, we were working on the plan for 2023 but things seem to have changed along the way on their side.”
Caf head of broadcasting Lux September said Africa’s football controlling body wanted to ensure that every participating country could view the tournament.
“Caf has concluded deals with 36 African broadcasters and about 35 global broadcasters,” he said. “We are sitting at around 75% of broadcast. Free-to-air space has always been important to us, and we have managed to crack and secure it. We will ensure that football supporters from all 24 participating countries will have access to their matches.”
He said Caf was grateful to the current and incoming leadership of the SABC for how they handled the discussions and ensured millions of South Africans could watch “Africa’s biggest event”.
“Major broadcasters in Europe [are] increasing their investment in African football by 70% to 100%. The Caf broadcast space is healthy,” said September.
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Caf has concluded deals with 36 African broadcasters and about 35 global broadcasters. We are sitting at around 75% of broadcast. Free-toair space has always been important to us Lux September
Caf head of broadcasting
What the SABC has acquired
“SABC Sport has also acquired the live matches to the rest of the Caf events, which include all 150 matches of the 2025 Afcon qualifiers; all the 32 matches of 2024 Chan; all matches of 2023/24 Caf Champions League; all matches of 2023/24 Caf Confederations Cup; all the matches of 2024 Caf Africa Women’s Cup of Nations; all matches of the 2024 Caf Women’s Champions League; and all the matches of 2024 Caf Super Cup,” the state broadcaster confirmed.