After an initial announcement that it wouldn’t be broadcasting the upcoming African Cup of Nations matches because it failed to secure the broadcasting rights, SuperSport on Wednesday, announced that it will broadcast all the 52 games live after its parent company, MultiChoice, secured the broadcast rights.
In the shocking announcement last week, the company had said:
“SuperSport Channel will not broadcast the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 scheduled for January 13th – February 11th, 2024, because the channel has not secured the rights to broadcast the tournament.”
“However, AFCON 2023 games will be available through our partner broadcast stations on Free to Air (FTA) channels.”
But in a u-turn on Wednesday, the company announced that SuperSport will now “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.”
A statement from the company said “Start slideshow 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.”
The statement issued by SuperSport CEO, Rendani Ramovha, said:
“We are delighted to be able to showcase the best of African football live to our viewers.”
Also commenting on the agreement, Nimonka Kolani, Managing Director of NWTV, 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.”