You Can Watch AFCON On These Four Channels

Lovers of football, especially on the African continent can view the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) on four channels. 

This is sequel to Multichoice’s announcement that it would not broadcast the biennial tournament on its DStv channels.

Multichoice, owners of DStv, had been involved in broadcasting 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 during the 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 is the list of four main platforms Nigerians can turn to in the absence of DStv:

1. Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Nigerians can turn to NTA, the country’s most prominent television station and largest network in Africa to watch the 2023 AFCON.

NTA has been broadcasting live happenings at every AFCON on its popular NTA Sports 24, free to air.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.